Police file terrorism charges against Pakistan’s Imran Khan

 

Pakistani police have filed terrorism charges against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, authorities said Monday, escalating political tensions in the country as he holds mass rallies seeking to return to office. 

The terrorism charges come over a speech Khan gave in Islamabad in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged that a close aide had been tortured after his arrest. His opponents contend he was elected with help from the powerful military, which has ruled the country for half of its 75-year history. 

In seeking Khan’s ouster earlier this year, the opposition had accused him of economic mismanagement as inflation soars and the Pakistani rupee plummets in value. Washington, the Pakistani military and the government of Khan’s successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, all have denied that. 

Police arrested Khan’s political aide, Shahbaz Gill, earlier this month after he appeared on the private television channel ARY TV and urged soldiers and officers to refuse to obey “illegal orders” from the military leadership. Gill was charged with treason, which under Pakistani law carries the death penalty.