"After Khan's removal, in case of a long-term jail sentence or worse, obviously the PTI party will not be the same and the unity will be shattered. If he is removed from the leadership of his party, PTI will not have that strength and with a passage of time the party will become weak and will not perform as well in the elections as it can right now," Rashid said.
"Today's episode of Khan's arrest has achieved two things for the government and the establishment. First is the fact that the court's sanctity has been hurt - Islamabad High Court's Chief Justice's office was attacked by the police, from where they literally dragged Khan out after breaking the windows," the observer said, adding that "the move is absolutely unconstitutional and unlawful."
"With this gesture they are conveying a message to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan who after May 14 was likely to take an action against some big names in the government for contempt of court, because the government is not announcing elections on May 14 as was ordered by the Supreme Court. Hence, this move today was done to pressurize the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and to show him that they are not afraid to barge into the courts."
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center took to Twitter to share a similar opinion to Dr. Rashid's, saying, "The timing of the arrest is striking. The senior army leadership is uninterested in repairing the rift between itself and Khan, and so with this arrest it's likely sending a message that the gloves are very much off."