Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan has accused the army chief of conspiring with the government to jail him and prevent him from participating in the election, revealing that he will go to court on Saturday to hear the "Toshakhana" case.
"The current government, the security establishment and the military are afraid of me returning to power, so they are doing everything to keep me out. "Never in Pakistan have thousands of police and gendarmes been trying to arrest a former prime minister, and the reason is that they want me in jail because they are afraid of me participating in elections."
This comes as a Pakistani court held the arrest warrant for Khan, 70, who is currently the head of Pakistan's Insaf Party, until Friday to defuse violence in which his supporters clashed with security forces.
Khan assistant Chaudhry said the Lahore High Court had extended an order to delay Khan's arrest until Friday, and Information Minister Amir Mir confirmed the court's decision.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, dozens of Khan's batoned supporters gathered to barricade himself in his home to prevent security forces from arresting him for failing to appear in court, after he was charged with illegally selling government gifts he received when he was prime minister, from 2018 to 2022.
Imran Khan asked his supporters to continue demonstrating for what he called freedom and independence even if he was arrested. In a video statement on his Twitter account, he said: "The police came to arrest me and take me to jail. If something happens to me, they throw me in jail or kill me, you have to prove that this nation will continue to struggle even without Imran Khan."
A police team led by a senior officer went to Imran Khan's home late on Tuesday afternoon on an arrest warrant for Khan, the action was aimed at ensuring that he appears in court on March 18 to face charges of failing to disclose assets related to the sale of government gifts he received while in power.
Dozens of Khan's baton-armed supporters gathered to barricade his home to prevent security forces from arresting him (Anatolia)
Police are manning off Khan's neighbourhood of Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, after clashes with his supporters.
An arrest warrant was issued for Khan after he failed to appear in court on February 28 in a corruption case, where he was accused of failing to declare gifts he received while in power.
Government officials must declare all gifts they receive, but are allowed to keep gifts that are priced less than a certain amount.
Imran Khan has been confined to his home since he was shot in the leg during a rally last November.
Khan had accused – in previous statements to Al Jazeera Mubasher – the current prime minister, the interior minister and the head of intelligence of being behind the assassination attempt.
He said that the current Pakistani government fears that his party will win the elections and is trying to throw him in jail, and said that "there are 74 lawsuits filed against me since I left power."
Khan is pushing for early elections no later than October, by holding rallies, withdrawing from parliament and dissolving two regional assemblies controlled by his party to twist the government's arm.
Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, is facing an economic crisis, with soaring inflation, insufficient hard currency reserves and stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.