Imran Khan arrested after Islamabad trial court sentences ex-prime minister to three years in jail
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: Police arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad court declared him guilty of corrupt practices and sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case.
“Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence,” Khan’s lawyer Intezar Panjotha was quoted as telling reporters.
Lahore Police chief Bilal Siddique Kamiana confirmed the arrest and said the former prime minister was being transferred to Islamabad.
The court sentenced Imran Khan to three years in jail and fined him Rs100,000 in a criminal complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for concealing assets and details of Toshakhana gifts, filing false declarations to the ECP and illegally selling state gifts.
“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 the verdict, shared by Khan’s legal team, said he had made false statements in relation to acquiring state gifts. “He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from national exchequer willfully and intentionally,” the verdict said.
“He cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from Toshakhana (the state gift repository) which later proved to be false and inaccurate.”
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.
It said that the PTI chief was convicted under Section 174 (Offence of corrupt practices) of the Election Act.
The court also directed that a copy of the order, along with the arrest warrant, should be sent to the Islamabad police chief for execution.
After the verdict, Imran Khan technically stands disqualified from holding any public office for five years under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution.
According to the disqualification law: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Parliament if he has been, on conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.”
The arrest is the latest in a series of blows that have weakened Khan’s political standing, after he fell out with the powerful establishment and his party splintered after the May 9 violent incidents following Khan’s brief arrest.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a broadcast statement that Khan’s arrest followed a full investigation and proper legal proceedings in a trial court. She said his arrest was unrelated to the upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Sharif has proposed that parliament be dissolved on August 9, three days before the end of its term, according to political sources, paving the way for a general election by November. A PTI official said vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who had served as the foreign minister during PTI stint in the government, would lead the party in Imran Khan’s absence. – Compiled from dispatches from our reporters and news agencies
