UN report says Rangers arrested Imran Khan on May 9, 2023, without warrant

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan checked for any UN report on PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan’s incarceration.

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X since October 27, 2024, claimed that as per a United Nations report, Imran was arrested by Rangers from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on May 9, 2023, without an arrest warrant. However, the June 2024 report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that an arrest warrant was issued by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) but not shown to Imran at the time of the arrest.

In a shocking turn of events, Imran was arrested by Rangers from the IHC premises in relation to the Al Qadir Trust case on May 9, 2023. His arrest prompted the outbreak of violent nationwide protests and riots.

The arrest was declared illegal by the Supreme Court two days later on May 11. Imran was arrested again on August 5, 2023, and has since been incarcerated in various cases.

HOW IT STARTED

A post by PTI supporter Saifullah Khan Afridi on X on October 27 had the following caption: “Surprising news. Rangers arrested Imran Khan on May 9 without a warrant. Report of United Nations.”

The post gained over 128,000 views and was reshared 8,200 times.

It was also shared by a fan account for PTI lawyer Naeem Bukhari, racking up over 93,000 views and being reshared 2,900 times.

The post was widely shared by other PTI supporters as well as can be seen here, here, here and here. ‘

Notably, none of the posts provided any more significant details such as the title, name, date, link or other relevant information about the alleged report.

It was also observed that the same claim was shared in the first few days of July 2024 by PTI supporters as can be seen here, and here, including Afridi himself, a fan account for anchorperson Kashif Abbasi and the X account for PTI’s Rawalpindi district chapter.

The claims had gained high views at the time as well.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and the public’s keen interest in all affairs of the PTI founder.

A keyword search for any UN report released in October 2024 regarding Imran did not yield any results.

A keyword search for any such report in July 2024 around the time of the prior claims yielded a July 1, 2024, Dawn.com news report titled: “Imran’s prosecution in Toshakhana, cipher cases ‘without legal basis, politically motivated’: UN report”.

As per the news story, a report by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Imran’s detention and prosecution in the first Toshakhana case and cipher cases were “without legal basis” and were politically motivated to exclude him from competing in the political arena.

It added that the UN body had adopted its opinion on the PTI founder’s detention in its 99th session from March 18-27, according to the report dated June 18, 2024.

A keyword search for “warrant” showed that on page 2, the report said: “Mr Khan was arrested on three occasions. On May 9, 2023, he was arrested for the first time by some 100 paramilitary troops of the Pakistan Rangers. The corresponding arrest warrant, issued by the National Accountability Bureau, was not shown to Mr Khan at the time of his arrest.”

Thus, the report did not say that Imran was arrested without an arrest warrant, only that the warrant issued by NAB was not shown to him.

This was corroborated by a May 9, 2023, news report by Dawn.com titled: “Imran Khan arrested from IHC; court deems ex-PM’s arrest legal” that said the PTI founder’s arrest warrant was dated May 1, 2024, and signed by NAB Chairman Lt-Gen Nazir Ahmed.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING

The claim regarding a UN report saying the Rangers arrested Imran on May 9, 2023, without an arrest warrant is misleading.

The actual report from June 2024 says that the arrest warrant issued was not shown to him. The claims therefore amount to a manipulation of context and content since presenting a distorted version of the UN report without supporting crucial details such as its original date has the potential to misguide the public into thinking as if it is a recent development when it is not.

Evidence and References

Report by United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention:
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/detention-wg/opinions/session99/a-hrc-wgad-2024-22-pakistan-aev.pdf

July 1, 2024, Dawn.com news report:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1843176/

May 9, 2023, Dawn.com news report:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1751782