ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan has been booked in six new cases relating to last week’s protests in Islamabad, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Monday, adding to legal woes of the incarcerated premier.
Khan’s PTI led supporters to Islamabad from Peshawar and other cities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on November 24, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from prison.
The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed three paramilitary soldiers and a police officer, and injured hundreds of others. The PTI has named 12 people who it says were killed during the crackdown.
On Monday, the PTI said the Rawalpindi police sought physical remand of the former premier in cases relating to last week’s protests, but a court ordered his judicial custody till the moving of bail applications in all the cases.
“Imran Khan’s counsels Barrister Salman Safdar, Salman Akram Raja, Usman Riaz Gill and PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, along with his family members, will meet him today,” the PTI said in a statement.
Separately, PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was brought from Lahore to Adiyala jail in Rawalpindi to be presented before a judge in a case relating to violent protests in the country by PTI supporters on May 9, 2023, according to Khan’s party.
“After being handed over to jail authorities, we are hopeful his meetings with his legal team and party leaders will resume accordingly,” it added.
Both Khan and Qureshi have been in jail since August last year and entangled in a slew of legal cases, which they say were politically motivated to keep the party out of power.
The PTI party has staged several protests this year to demand the release of Khan and to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election, which it says were manipulated to favor its opponents. The Pakistani government and election authorities deny this.
Last week’s protests were by far the largest to grip the capital since the poll and the Pakistani government said they caused Rs192 billion per day indirect losses to the economy.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday congratulated the leadership and the people of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on its 53rd National Day, hoping to further strengthen fraternal Pakistan-UAE ties into an economic partnership.
The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and a major source of foreign investment, valued at over $10 billion in the last 20 years, according to the UAE foreign ministry. It is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates.
Policymakers in Pakistan also consider the Gulf country an optimal export destination due to its geographical proximity, which minimizes transportation and freight costs while facilitating commercial transactions.
In a message on X, PM Sharif extended his heartiest felicitations to the leadership and the people of the UAE, saying Pakistan was proud of the Gulf nation’s “remarkable journey of progress and prosperity.”
“Pakistan has always remained a steadfast brother and partner of the UAE,” he said. “Together, we will continue to strive to further strengthen our historical and fraternal ties and transform them into a mutually beneficial economic partnership. Long live Pakistan-UAE friendship!“
He said the UAE was founded on the wisdom and sagacity of the late former president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan and today that vision to achieve excellence through innovation and modernization was carried forward by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
The UAE-Pakistan trade volume rose to $7.9 billion in 2023, up 12 percent from 2022. In May this year, PM Sharif said the Emirates had committed $10 billion to invest in promising economic sectors in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Business Council (PBC), set up this September at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also aims to increase Pakistan’s bilateral trade volume with the UAE to $40 billion in three years.