Khan, 70, who was ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in April, suffered a leg injury and was not in critical condition, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan President Arif Alvi tweeted that Khan was “safe, but injured with a few bullets in his leg and hopefully not critical”. Officials said an assailant opened fire on Khan’s convoy as the former leader drove through the city of Wazirabad, part of a week-long march aimed at challenging the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. A video from the scene captured a burst of gunfire as Khan stood in an open truck surrounded by supporters. Officials of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said one person was killed and seven injured in the shooting. PTI tweeted a video of Faisal Javed Khan, a senator, with blood stains and bandages on his face. Officials added that one person was arrested. Sharif “strongly condemned” the attack. “Violence should have no place in our country’s politics,” the prime minister tweeted. He said he has instructed the home secretary to report the incident immediately. Ahsan Iqbal, minister for planning and a senior figure in Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said: “Thank God [Khan] it is safe.” Since his ouster as prime minister, Khan’s support has soared as his populist messages strike a chord at a time of painful inflation. The former cricket star last Friday began marching through Punjab province to the capital Islamabad in a bid to drum up enough support to oust Sharif as prime minister and force early elections. After the shooting, Khan was taken to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in Lahore. A PTI leader told the FT that Khan is expected to recover soon. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted Imran Ismail, a senior PTI figure who was standing with Khan when he was attacked, as saying the shots were clearly aimed at him. “The bullet was intended to kill, not to frighten,” Ismail said. Pakistan has a grim history of political violence. In 2007, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber at a campaign rally. Thursday’s shootings come at a volatile time in Pakistani politics, with rival political leaders engaged in an increasingly tense public standoff. Khan and government leaders in recent months have often leveled bitter accusations against each other. A video shows Imran Khan receiving help after being shot in the leg in Wazirabad © Urdu Media/Reuters Azeema Cheema, director of Verso Consulting, said the attack appeared to echo the 2007 assassination of Bhutto and the 2011 assassination of prominent Punjab governor Salman Taiser. The shooting had opened a “Pandora’s box” that risked escalating political tensions and could lead to further violence, Cheema said. Despite the intense political rhetoric of recent months, “this red line [of violence] it hadn’t crossed over yet,” he said. Local TV channels aired a video of Khan’s alleged assailant confessing to attacking the former prime minister. The man accused Khan of “misleading” people and said: “I did my best to kill him.” Khan was first elected in 2018 on an anti-corruption platform, but faced financial challenges while in office – paving the way for his ouster. Pakistan’s election commission last month barred Khan from holding office over allegations he mishandled gifts he received while prime minister. However, many analysts expect the decision to be overturned in time for him to contest national elections, which must be held no later than next year. Khan has also been embroiled in a rare confrontation with Pakistan’s powerful military, which last week publicly criticized his “unconstitutional desires”. The military condemned the attack. On Monday, Khan wrote of the crowds accompanying him on the march to the capital that for six months he had “witnessed a revolution”. “[The] The only question is, will it be a soft one from the ballot box or a devastating one through bloodshed?” Khan wrote.
