Pakistani police arrest former prime minister Imran Khan after court conviction
CTV
The political future of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan was thrown into doubt Saturday when police arrested him at home after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for asset concealment.
The political future of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan was thrown into doubt Saturday when police arrested him at home after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for asset concealment.
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 can ultimately disqualify Khan from politics.
The Islamabad court issued the arrest warrant after convicting Khan. Police moved quickly to take the popular politician from his home in the eastern city of Lahore to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, senior police officer Ali Nasir Rizvi said. Local information minister, Amir Mir, said Khan was being taken to Lahore airport to be transported to the capital.
It's the second time the popular opposition leader has been detained this year.
Since his ouster from power in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022, Khan has been slapped with more than 150 legal cases, including several on charges of corruption, terrorism and inciting people to violence over deadly protests in May that saw his followers attack government and military property across the country. Khan, cricket star-turned-politician, remains the leading opposition figure despite his ouster.
A PTI spokesman, Rauf Hasan, described the asset concealment trial as the "worst in history and tantamount to the murder of justice."
