Imran Khan arrest LIVE Updates: High-security alert in Islamabad, Rawalpindi post ex-PM’s conviction

Pakistan’s premier fast bowler Shaheen Afridi changed his Twitter profile picture, hours after former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was sentenced to three years in prison. Read more

Pakistan’s ruling alliance on Saturday welcomed former prime minister Imran Khan’s three-year prison sentence and his arrest in a corruption case.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his Zaman Park home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.

Additional Judge Humayun Dilawar of the Islamabad-based district and sessions court also imposed a fine of ₹100,000 on Khan and noted that the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party would be kept in jail for another six months if he failed to pay the fine.

“He cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from the Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate. His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” the court order said.

Born to a Pashtun family in Lahore, Khan graduated from Keble College, Oxford. He began his international cricket career in a 1971 Test series against England.

Khan played until 1992 and served as the team’s captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992. Under his captaincy, Pakistan won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, the country’s only victory in the competition.

From 1995 to 2004, Khan was married to Jemima Goldsmith, a British socialite turned writer and activist. They have two sons. The marriage ended amicably in divorce in 2004.

In 2015, Khan announced his second marriage to the British Pakistani journalist Reham Khan. The marriage lasted nine months and ended in divorce in 2015.

In 2018, he married Bushra Bibi, who was previously his spiritual mentor.

A court in Pakistan has extended interim bail of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s in the National Crime Agency (NCA) 190 million Pounds scandal, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The Accountability Court No.1 Islamabad Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the case and extended the interim bail till August 10 as final arguments were not given in the case due to Khan’s arrest in the Toshakhana case today.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Haris and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) deputy prosecutor general Sardar Muzaffar appeared before the court.

Following Khan’s arrest, police have declared a high-security alert in Islamabad and Rawalpindi amid apprehensions of protests.

Imran Khan’s arrest and detention for several days in May over a separate case had sparked intense political turmoil and deadly clashes had erupted between Khan supporters and police.

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrested for the second time in four months on Saturday, faces an increasingly tough challenge in his bid to regain office in elections to be held by November.

The arrest is a fresh setback for the former cricket star who whipped up popular support since ouster last year in the face of a bruising standoff with the powerful military, but has faced divisions within his party.

Khan, 70, is the South Asian nation’s most popular leader, according to opinion polls. A brief arrest in May on separate corruption charges sparked deadly unrest across the country at a time of economic crisis.

Imran Khan’s conviction and his three-year jail term in a corruption case have cleared a “major hurdle” for the ruling PML-N and the military establishment, who appear to be on the same page, to hold the elections, a leading political analyst said on Saturday.

Former Pakistan prime minister Khan, 70, was arrested from his Zaman Park home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.

The case alleges that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana, a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept, during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.

Pakistan’s general elections could be delayed, albeit briefly, following the unanimous endorsement of the latest census results by a top constitutional body on Saturday.

The Ministry of Planning in a briefing to the meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI), chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by Cabinet ministers, provincial chief ministers as well as other senior officials, showed that Pakistan’s population had reached 240.10 million.

All participants unanimously approved the results of the census carried out in March and April with enumerators going door to door, while people also had an option to login and register their family details.

Police arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Lahore.

Following are some details of the cases against former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was arrested on Saturday after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts. Khan has denied wrongdoing.

* Khan was convicted of misusing his 2018-2022 premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($490,000)

* The gifts allegedly included watches given by a royal family, according to government officials, who have alleged previously that Khan’s aides sold them in Dubai. The list, which Reuters could not independently verify, also contains perfumes, diamond jewellery and dinner sets.

Police arrested Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore on Saturday after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, potentially barring the opposition leader from contesting an upcoming election.

Legal experts say the guilty verdict reached by an Islamabad district court could eliminate Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s greatest rival in a national election expected in November.

“Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence,” Khan’s lawyer, Intezar Panjotha, told Reuters. “We are filing a petition against the decision in high court.”

Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday in a pre-recorded video said that his arrest was “expected” and asked his supporters “not to sit silent” and stand up for their rights and freedom.

The 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was arrested from his Zaman Park residence here after the Islamabad trial court convicted him in the Toshakhana case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.

In a pre-recorded statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Khan said, “By the time this video message reaches you, I would be arrested and in jail…which is why I have a request…an appeal to all of you…you should not sit at home in silence. These earnest efforts of mine are not for me but for my people, my community, for you. I am doing it for you. I am doing it for the good fortune of your children.”

Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Saturday arrested 10 PTI workers for protesting a trial court’s conviction and sentencing of former prime minister Imran Khan in a corruption case.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his Zaman Park home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.

The case alleges that Khan “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana, a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept, during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.

The sentencing and arrest of Imran Khan in the Toshakhana corruption case is “politically motivated”, his close aide and former Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday, asserting that the party will challenge the verdict and use all legal means to defend the ex-prime minister.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his Zaman Park home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana case and sentenced him to three years in prison.

The verdict, issued by Additional District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar, comes as a blow to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief who has been arrested for the second time in three months.

Protest continues in front of Press Club Quetta against the arrest of Imran Khan

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Saturday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court terming the arrest of its chief Imran Khan as “abduction at gunpoint” by the Punjab police.

Petitioner Umair Niazi, PTI additional secretary general, requested the court to take up his petition without any delay and direct the Punjab police and government to produce the former prime minister before it to ensure his safety.

“The government has kept Mr Khan in illegal custody. Imran Khan was attending a meeting at his Zaman Park residence at 12:45 pm today when some 200 policemen barged into the house and abducted him at gunpoint. They are keeping him in illegal custody,” the petitioner said, and requested the court to take up the petition today (Saturday) itself and order the authorities to produce him before it.

A day before his arrest, Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan claimed that his party would sweep the next elections as the vindictive actions taken against him and his supporters by the Shehbaz Sharif-led government, backed by the military establishment, were only increasing his party’s vote bank.

The 70-year-old embattled former premier was arrested on Saturday from his Lahore’s Zaman Park residence after the Islamabad trial court sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison in a corruption case over the sale of expensive state gifts when he was in power. The move could disqualify him from politics.

“The military establishment and the government have a fear that the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) would sweep the polls. The May 9 incidents (attack on army installations) were an excuse as they (the military and the government) had already planned to crush my party,” Khan said in his address to the nation on YouTube on Friday night.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday rejected the party’s chairman Imran Khan’s conviction in the Toshakhana case and said that PTI will use its right to challenge the decision by approaching the judiciary, Pakistan-based Geo News reported.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi has called the court’s verdict “politically motivated” and “state-sanctioned.” His statement comes after a Pakistan district and sessions court on Saturday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case.

With Imran Khan’s sentencing and quick arrest on Saturday in a corruption case, Pakistan has maintained its notoriety for jailing former prime ministers while shying away from taking any action against military dictators who repeatedly violated the Constitution.

Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore after an Islamabad-based sessions court sentenced him to three years in prison on the charges of hiding the proceeds from the sale of state gifts from the Toshakhana.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries. Khan bought some gifts including a precious watch given to him by the Saudi crown prince and sold the same for profit.

The 70-year-old leader was authorised to buy the gifts from Toshakhana and also carry out the sale but failed to inform the Election Commission of Pakistan about the money he made for which he was accused of concealment which is a crime under the law.

Pakistan following the India model in preventing the principal opposition leader from contesting elections, says Karti Chidambaram.

Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan will not be able to contest elections scheduled to be held by November, after he was convicted of hiding the proceeds from selling state gifts when he was in power.

The ex-cricket star was swiftly arrested by police on Saturday after a sessions court in Islamabad sentenced him to three years in prison. Khan, who denies any wrongdoing and faces more than 170 other cases, will challenge the decision in a higher court.

The latest political development clears the way for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold elections as the government’s term ends next week. Sharif is looking to secure a mandate allowing him to continue with the bailout program with the International Monetary Fund that he revived in late June on the backdrop of record inflation and interest rates.

Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan to be sent to central jail in Rawalpindi: Arrest warrant

In a stern statement, The Lahore High Court Bar Association condemned the arrest of PTI chief Imran Khan on Saturday. The party shared the association’s message on X formerly known as Twitter. “The Lahore High Court Bar Association also questioned the role of the higher judiciary,” the party tweeted.

In May, Khan was arrested and briefly detained in Islamabad for the same case, sparking deadly unrest during which supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party poured onto the streets and clashed with police.

In the aftermath of his release following three days in custody, PTI has been targeted by a crackdown with thousands of arrests, reports of intimidation and muzzling of the press.

Established in 1974, Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries as a goodwill gesture.

It has valuables ranging from bulletproof cars, gold-plated souvenirs and expensive paintings to watches, ornaments, rugs and swords.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has held a meeting with leaders of the allied parties to discuss the name of a caretaker prime minister to oversee general elections in the cash-strapped country as the government is about to complete its constitutional term.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan Democratic Movement and Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other coalition leaders attended the meeting on Friday, The Express Tribune newspaper reported on Saturday.

During the meeting, the prime minister took the leaders of the allied parties into confidence on the caretaker set-up and dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9.

Following is a timeline of the main developments in the Toshakhana case:

August 2022: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent the Toshakhana case against Khan to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in accordance with the Articles of the Constitution.

September 19, 2022: ECP reserved judgment in the case.

October 21, 2022: The ECP ruled that Khan made “false statements and incorrect declarations” about the gifts and disqualified him under the Constitution.

November 21, 2022: The ECP moved a session court in Islamabad for criminal proceedings against Khan.

May 10, 2023: The trial court indicted Khan.

July 4, 2023: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) overturned the trial court’s ruling on the maintainability of the case and directed it to rehear the petitioner and decide the matter within seven days.

July 8, 2023: Judge Humayun Dilawar declared the Toshakhana case against Khan as maintainable.

August 2, 2023: The trial court rejected the list of witnesses presented by Khan.

August 4, 2023: Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq referred the matter back to the trial court with a direction to re-examine the jurisdiction and any procedural lapse in the filing of the complaint by the Election Commission.

August 5, 2023: Judge Dilawar found Khan guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana case and sent the PTI chief to jail for three years.

Pakistani media and a Reuters witness described police surrounding Khan’s residence in Lahore on Saturday after verdict was released, but there were no immediate signs of unrest in the hours after his arrest, unlike last May.

Back then, his arrest and detention for several days over a separate case sparked political turmoil and deadly clashes between his supporters and police.

Khan’s latest arrest comes with an election just months away. Prime Minister Sharif has proposed that parliament be dissolved on Aug. 9, three days before the end of its term, according to political sources, paving the way for a general election by November.

Just an hour after his arrest, Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s team released another video message recorded by him before his arrest. “My arrest was expected & I recorded this message before my arrest. It is one more step in fulfilling London Plan but I want my party workers to remain peaceful, steadfast and strong. We bow before no one but Allah who is Al Haq. We believe in La illaha Ilallah,” Imran Khan’s team shared his message on X, formally known as Twitter.

Pakistani police on Saturday arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan at his home in the eastern city of Lahore after a court convicted him in an asset concealment case and handed him down a three-year prison sentence.

It’s the second time the popular opposition leader has been detained this year.

The prison sentence could see Khan barred from politics as the law says people with a criminal conviction cannot hold or run for public office. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, condemned the ruling and said it will challenge the decision in a superior court.

While a superior court can suspend the conviction, it’s the country’s election body that ultimately disqualifies Khan from politics.

Pakistan’s Imran Khan being held at undisclosed location, will be transported to Islamabad via aircraft, reported geo news

It’s the second time that the opposition leader Imran Khan has been detained this year.

Senior political analyst and renowned journalist Hamid Mir said Saturday that while the Toshakhana case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was very obvious from the get-go, the way the trial court and the presiding judge, Additional District Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar, conducted the case would raise many “questions”, reported Geo news.

In a major development earlier today, ADSJ Humayun convicted the former prime minister for corrupt practices related to the state gift depository — allegations he denies.

PTI party’s Punjab wing shared a video on X, formally known as Twitter, where a police motorcade can be seen leaving Khan’s residence after arresting him.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi Saturday rejected the conviction and arrest of Chairman Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case and said the “much-feared” ruling by a trial court was state-sanctioned and premeditated.

Talking to Geo.tv, Qureshi said: “I reject the court’s verdict and believe it is a politically motivated and predetermined decision which was already expected.”

“Chairman Imran Khan had already been saying that the judiciary has made up its to arrest me,” he said while quoting further his party’s chief, “They are determined to disqualify me which was already indicated in Khan’s public speeches.

“The court finds its more than convincing that the complainant (ECP) had provided confidence-inspiring, well-knitted and corroborated evidence, and so the charge against the accused has successfully been proven that the accused has committed offence of corrupt practices by making and publishing false statements/declaration in respect of assets acquired by way of gifts from Toshakhana and disposed of during years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020,” Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar said in a short order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com.

The surprise verdict came after the high court on Friday ordered the lower court to decide on whether the state gifts case was a criminal offense. The lower court judge decided on Saturday morning that the case was a criminal one before handing down a guilty verdict and immediately sentencing Khan who was not present for the proceedings.

About 30 minutes after the court verdict, local television stations showed footage of police outside Khan’s heavily guarded house in Punjab province. Khan’s party has called Khan’s arrest illegal.

A sessions court in Islamabad sentenced the ex-cricket star to three years in prison, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said in a statement. Khan, who denies any wrongdoing and faces more than 170 other cases, will challenge the decision in a higher court.

“The court declared Imran Khan as guilty in a judgment, which is lacking witnesses,” Naeem Haider Panjhuta, Khan’s spokesman on legal affairs, said in a posting on social media. “Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in prison and 100,000 rupees fine in the state gifts case.”

Pakistan Information Minister: Imran Khan’s conviction is not related to the elections.

In a video posted by PTI on Twitter handle, Imran Khan said that he didn’t get a chance to argue in the case. He added that his house was attacked because of this case.

The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000).

An additional ₹1 lakh (Pakistani rupees) has been levied on Khan by additional judge Humayun Dilawar of Islamabad sessions court. The judge also mentioned that if Khan fails to pay the fine, he could face an additional six months of imprisonment.

The latest arrest comes in the lead up to an election expected to take place in the next three months. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has proposed that parliament be dissolved on Aug. 9, three days before the end of its term, according to political, paving the way for a general election by November.

“Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence,” Khan’s lawyer Intezar Panjotha told Reuters. “We are filing a petition against the decision in high court.

Imran Khan’s political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reacted to the trial courts’ Saturday verdict and called the judge presiding over the proceedings guilty. 

“A very biased decision of the Additional District and Sessions Judge in the Tosha Khana case Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rejected the biased decision of the biased judge Humayun Dilawar Announcement to challenge the decision before the High Court Another black mark was placed on the forehead of the justice system by the Tosha Khana case. The trial was conducted in the most absurd manner in history by the biased judge Humayun Dilawar,” the party wrote in a statement. 

“In this worst trial in history, an attempt was made to kill justice at the hands of a biased and morally corrupt judge. The trial judge with blindfolds of bias blindfolded the facts of the case with a specific agenda. Sessions Court’s decision is the worst example of political revenge and engineering. A shameful invasion of the Republic and democracy was made through a flawed, ridiculous and without solid legal basis decision,” the part statement read.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday was sentenced to three-year imprisonment by an Islamabad court in the Toshakhana case pertaining to the improper acquisition of state gifts. Read more

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, shortly after an Islamabad trial court declared him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana case, was arrested by Punjab police on Saturday afternoon from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.

PTI’s Punjab Chapter confirmed the reports with a tweet: “Imran Khan is being moved to Kot Lakhpat Jail.”

The decision of the Kangaroo Court of Dilawar was not yet received by anyone in the court, but the Lahore Police was already there to kidnap the Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaf.

“Whatever you do, your captain stands firm. I want to say the same to my people, you will not give up under any circumstances,” Imran Khan

Police arrested Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday, his lawyer said, after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts.

Legal experts say guilty verdict reached by a district court could end Khan’s chances of participating in national elections that have to be held before early November.

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, was reportedly arrested after a trial court on Saturday sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, also known as the Toshakhana corruption case. Read more

Legal experts say a conviction in the case could end Khan’s chances of participating in national elections that have to be held before early November, reported Reuters.