One day can change everything. The last several weeks saw the entire state machinery united in tightening its claws around an opposition leader in what can only be called a stark reminder of our messy walks down memory lane. The unimaginable has finally happened and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chief Imran Khan was arrested by Rangers in the wake of an extraordinary siege of the premises of the higher judiciary. It is hard to pinpoint the sourest note of the sordid tale: the heart-wrenching account of torture at the time of arrest, as narrated by the legal counsel; blurring of jurisdiction by an institution that does not have any legal powers to arrest or the seemingly knee-jerk reaction to heated remarks over the said assassination attempt? Political analysts and legal eagles are echoing their disapproval in unison as they try to raise the supremacy of civilian powers. No act of vengeance should be allowed to make a blatant mockery of the fundamental freedoms that the Constitution stands for. Arrests before conviction carry the hallmarks of political victimisation and should be condemned as such. Hiding behind legal technicalities (which are also vague in the light of the judgement in the Khawaja Salman Rafique case) may work for now, but everyone should remember that politicians lose the most in such battles. Giving consent to usurping of individual freedoms has always made it a point to come back to haunt the perpetrators. Having survived the repeated rounds of languishing under the butcher’s knife themselves, one might have expected the seasoned hands to show a little solidarity with the victims. But then again, the chequered past of the former administration as they oversaw such arrests cannot be overlooked in defending the right to a fair trial While the lips that matter remain sealed, the public has spoken, and its mood is more ferocious than ever before. Amid protests erupting in all corners, the irony of the situation hangs heavy in the air. What marvels were achieved by forcefully whisking a politician who had come to appear before the bench, other than gaslighting yet another episode of widespread destruction? The red line has, indeed, been crossed, but there’s no telling who would the spillover from the boiling cauldron target next. *