By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday from his home in Lahore, hours after a court found him guilty of corruption over gifts he received from foreign leaders during his time in office.
Khan, who leads the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was sentenced to three years in jail and fined 100,000 rupees for hiding details of the gifts he kept from the Toshakhana, a state repository where such presents are stored.
The 70-year-old former cricket star was accused of abusing his power from 2018 to 2022 to buy and sell gifts worth more than 140 million rupees that belonged to the state and were received during foreign visits. Khan was shifted to Attock jail in Punjab province amid tight security.
“Imran Khan deliberately submitted fake details (of Toshakhana gifts) to the ECP and is found guilty of corrupt practices,” Judge Humayun Dilawar ruled.
“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,” Judge Dilawar said in a short order.
The judge said that Imran also provided an “incorrect declaration” in the Form-B — the statement of assets and liabilities — submitted to the ECP for the year 2020-2021.
“He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer willfully and intentionally. He cheated while providing information of gifts he obtained from Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate… His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt.”
Khan and his lawyers did not attend the court. The court also issued a warrant for his arrest and ordered the police to execute it.
As the verdict was announced, a crowd of lawyers and others chanted “Imran Khan is a thief” outside the court building.
In a pre-recorded video message released by his party shortly after his arrest, Khan asked his supporters to protest peacefully and not to give up their rights.
“My Pakistanis, by the time this message reaches you, I will be arrested and put in jail, so I have only one request and an appeal from you that you must not sit at home silently,” he said.
“You have to continue protesting peacefully until you get your rights, and your biggest fundamental right is to choose a government through your votes.”
The former premier said he was not fighting for himself but for the “sake of the nation and the future of the generations to come.”
“If you don’t stand up for your rights, you will live your lives like slaves,” he said. “This is a battle for justice, for your rights, and for your freedom. And no one will serve freedom to you on a platter.”
The case against Khan was filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which disqualified him from holding public office in October 2022 under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution, which bars anyone who is guilty of corruption from being a member of parliament.
The ECP then sought criminal proceedings against him from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which on Friday temporarily halted the trial and asked a lower court to examine whether a legal complaint by the ECP constituted criminal proceedings.
But the lower court, a day later, in a surprise move, sentenced Khan in his absence.
Khan’s arrest is the latest blow for the former sportsman, who has faced several legal challenges since he lost power in a parliamentary vote in 2022. He was elected prime minister in 2018 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.
He was also arrested in May this year in another case related to his alleged misuse of funds from a charity trust. He was then released after the arrest was declared illegal. He has denied all the charges.
Khan’s party filed a petition in the Lahore High Court and demanded that he be produced before the court and set free, calling his detention “illegal and unlawful.
The party said the defense was not given a chance to present witnesses or complete arguments in the case.
“We will be challenging the verdict in the superior judiciary as we feel that justice has not been done in this case,” PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters, raising questions over the “hasty trial and proceedings” in the case.
“Our applications and appeals have already been pending in the Islamabad High Court for adjudication in the Toshakhana case, but the district court judge [still] issued a judgment.”
Attaullah Tarar, an aide to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on legal affairs, said the court had found Khan guilty of “misdeclaration” of his assets in the statement of his wealth.
“You know elected representatives have to declare their assets with the Election Commission of Pakistan,” Tarar said in televised comments. “Anything you do not declare counts as misdeclaration and that accounts for three-year imprisonment.”
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