Abid Hussain

‘They planned it’: De­fence Min­is­ter Asif al­leges mil­i­tary in­stal­la­tions in dif­fer­ent cities were tar­get­ed de­lib­er­ate­ly.

Chaudhry, se­nior vice pres­i­dent of the PTI, quits par­ty, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Umar re­signs from post.

Since Khan’s ar­rest and the vi­o­lence that fol­lowed, more than two dozen PTI lead­ers have quit the be­lea­guered par­ty.

Since his ar­rest at Sialkot air­port, nei­ther his fam­i­ly nor po­lice ap­pear to know the com­men­ta­tor’s where­abouts.

Gov­ern­ment de­ci­sion comes amid mount­ing crit­i­cism of its ear­li­er an­nounce­ment to try all pro­test­ers un­der dra­con­ian law.

The ex-PM’s mut­ed crit­i­cism of van­dal­ism at mil­i­tary in­stal­la­tions comes af­ter more than a dozen lead­ers quit his par­ty.

Gov­ern­ment says it will try ri­ot­ing pro­test­ers un­der the law, which was en­act­ed in 1952 to pros­e­cute army per­son­nel.

Rights groups crit­i­cise de­ci­sion to use mil­i­tary courts to try civil­ians, say it risks vi­o­lat­ing right to due process.

Of­fi­cials say in­ci­dent is part of decades-old trib­al ri­val­ry over mine in Dar­ra Adam Khel area of Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa.

Protest by pro-gov’t sup­port­ers out­side Supreme Court and par­lia­ment res­o­lu­tion against top judge es­ca­late the ten­sions.