For a moment in mid-May, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan looked as if he was the country’s most powerful man. Khan’s arrest on corruption charges on May 9 had triggered widespread protests by his supporters, including violent attacks on government buildings in cities considered to be his political strongholds. Days later, the Supreme Court ruled that his arrest and detention was unlawful.
In a YouTube livestream hours after he was released from prison, Khan chided Pakistan’s army commanders, who he accused of being behind his arrest as well as his removal from office in April 2022.
“This is not some kind of despotism,” Khan told the generals, “that we are inferior to you and cannot criticize you.”