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Imran Khan had reprimanded his supporters for not being silent and going out to protest before the verdict against him
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Pakistani police on Saturday arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore, following a 3-year prison sentence.
A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to three years in prison over corruption charges.
The court found Khan guilty of failing to disclose the money earned from the sale of gifts he received for his work in office.
Khan, 70, denied all charges and said he would appeal the verdict.
Immediately after the verdict, Khan was taken into custody and taken from his home in Lahore.
The Reuters news agency quoted “waiting for Hussain Panjuta,” a lawyer for the former prime minister that the police arrested his client at his residence in Lahore, east of the country.
Minutes before his arrest, Imran Khan posted a video calling his supporters to protest peacefully. In a pre-recorded statement on X, formerly Twitter, Khan told his supporters to come out for him. “I make only one plea to you, don’t stand silent,” he said.
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The former cricketer-turned-politician was elected prime minister of Pakistan in 2018 but was removed from office after a no-confidence vote against him last year, following a row with Pakistan’s influential military in the country.
Khan faces more than 100 cases, all of which were brought against him after his removal from power, and he says they are politically motivated charges.
Saturday’s verdict came on Khan’s accusations about details of gifts he received from foreign dignitaries and kept the proceeds from their sale.
The gifts, reported to be more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000), included Rolex watches, a ring and a pair of bracelets.
“This case undoubtedly involves breach of trust,” Judge Humayun Dilawar wrote in his decision.
But Gauhar Khan, the former prime minister’s lawyer, said the verdict “killed justice”.
He told the Dawn newspaper that he was not given a full opportunity to defend his client, “We were not even allowed to say anything and present our defences… I have never seen this kind of injustice before.”
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Pakistani police in front of Imran Khan’s house after he was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Saturday
After the court’s decision was announced, a crowd outside the building chanted “Imran Khan is a thief”, including some of the lawyers involved in his prosecution.
Khan will be sent to Adiala Prison, the central jail in the city of Rawalpindi, south of the capital, Islamabad.
For months, Khan avoided arrest, and his supporters sometimes got into fights with the police to get him out of custody.
In May, Khan was arrested for failing to appear in court as required. Then he was released under the pretext that his arrest procedures were not legal.
Since then, his party has been under severe pressure from the authorities.
Many senior officials have left the party, and thousands of supporters have been arrested, accused of taking part in the protests that followed Khan’s arrest.
In an interview with the BBC’s Hard Talk programme, when asked if he had created an atmosphere of hostility towards the army as a result of the violence, Khan replied that he and his party had never advocated the use of violence and had a record of peaceful protest.
Khan added that the army in Pakistan is “ossified” in dealing with the elections that his party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, will win, and for this reason, they are dismantling democracy.
Pakistan’s army plays a prominent role in politics, sometimes seizing power through military coups, and at other times turning things against the government behind the scenes.
Many analysts believe that Khan’s victory in the 2018 elections came with the help of the military.
When he was in opposition, he was one of the most critical voices of the army, and analysts believe that the army’s popularity has fallen.
Since his ouster, Khan has campaigned for early elections.
But after his latest conviction he will be excluded from running for prime minister, and possibly from politics, for life.
Pakistan’s parliament will be dissolved on August 9, and the country will be run by an interim government that will oversee elections.
The date for the next elections has not been announced, although the elections should be held in early November.
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2023-08-05 12:41:11
