Imran Khan, file image.
On August 5, Pakistani police arrested the country’s former prime minister Imran Khan in the eastern city of Lahore after a trial court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts.
Khan was accused of misusing his position from 2018 to 2022 to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees [$497,500].
“His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” judge Humayun Dilawar wrote in the ruling. “He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer wilfully and intentionally.”
Judge Dilawar said police had been instructed to arrest Khan immediately. Within 15 minutes of the verdict, footage showed a line of police cars and trucks taking him away from his home in Lahore.
The verdict against Khan also includes a 100,000-rupee fine [$355] which, if not paid, could amount to a further six months in jail.
In a pre-recorded statement posted after the verdict, the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician urged supporters to fight against the ruling.
“I have only one appeal, don’t sit at home silently,” he said in a video address posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “I am struggling for you and the country and your children’s future,” he added.
Khan’s lawyer Intezar Panjotha told the Reuters news agency that a petition against the decision in the high court is being filed.
According to Pakistani media, Khan will be sent to Adyala central prison in the city of Rawalpindi, to the south of Islamabad.
Khan was removed from the post of Prime Minister in April 2022 as a result of a vote of no confidence passed by parliament after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military. Last November, the former primer survived a shooting at a political rally, in what his party called an assassination attempt.
For months Khan had avoided arrest. Last May, he was arrested for not appearing at court as requested. After mass protests by Khan’s supporters across the country, he was released and the arrest declared illegal.
The sentence against Khan will likely lead to unrest in Pakistan as many see it as an attempt by the military to solidify its grip over the country.
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so the pro us side has won in pakistan interesting. will the plans for the chinese belt and road initiative which incoperated the pakistani port of gwadar now be killed?
or did he take the wef money and then stiff them?
that chinese project failed years ago! total fail. people are starving in baqistan.
pakistanis caught sleeepin’
error, just give me a laugh why don’t you.
thankfully as i have never donated to this shill site.
such little truth and just so many lies, just like veterans today and one johnny, gordon et al, just so many liar in our world it would seem.
is this site i wonder some extension of one gordon duff i wonder as he spew spiel as per one johnny punish that fuckin biden fool sniffer as he is pedo…
just imagine our world as most chief of western world is a pedo…
a feckin pedo…
you fought the wrong war mr england, you fought that wrong war and here we are and there we be.
you fought the wrong war and here we are now as white slav murder white slav murder slav like did 14 war of that great lie if war to end all war as we remember them with poppy and now sunflower.
“in what his party called an assassination attempt”?! if not an assassination attempt, what was it?
foreign aid from the west is nothing but bribery to purchase politicians and their behaviors. since most people are poor worldwide it’s a very successful method of buying submission.
baqistan is a fucking joke man. get real. all these piece of shit sunni muzlim countries are toady banana republics.