Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan jailed for 3 years: ‘Don’t sit silently at home’, he urges supporters
- The cricketer-turned-politician was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell state gifts received during visits abroad and worth US$635,000
- The guilty verdict could eliminate Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s greatest rival in a national election that is expected to be held in early November
Police arrested Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan at his home in the eastern city of 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 a coming 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 that is expected to be held in November.
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.
Police moved quickly to take the popular politician from his home to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, senior police officer Ali Nasir Rizvi said.
“Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence,” Khan’s lawyer, Intezar Panjotha, said. “We are filing a petition against the decision in high court.”
Lahore Police Chief Bilal Siddique Kamiana confirmed the arrest and that the politician was being transferred to Islamabad. Khan would then be held at Central Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, near the capital, according to the arrest warrant.
