Islamabad. The political future of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was thrown into question Saturday when police arrested him at his home after being sentenced to three years in prison for concealing assets.
The sentence could remove Khan from politics as the law prohibits people with criminal convictions from holding public office or running for office. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, condemned the ruling and said it will appeal the ruling to a higher court.
Although a high court can suspend the sentence, it is the electoral board that, in the last instance, can disqualify him for politics.
The Islamabad court issued an arrest warrant following the conviction of Khan. Lahore police moved immediately to transfer him from his home in the eastern city of Lahore to the Pakistani capital, said a senior police official, Ali Nasir Rizvi. Regional Information Minister Amir Mir said the politician was being taken to Lahore airport for his transfer to Islamabad.
It is the second time that the popular opposition leader has been detained this year.
Since his dismissal following a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022, Khan has been implicated in more than 150 legal proceedings, several of them for corruption, terrorism, and incitement to violence over the deadly May protests in which his supporters they attacked government and military properties across the country.
Despite his forced removal from power, Khan, a cricket star turned politician, remains the leading figure in the opposition. A PTI spokesman, Rauf Hasan, described the trial for concealment of assets as the “worst in history, tantamount to the murder of justice.”
Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb denied that Khan’s detention had anything to do with elections scheduled for the end of the year, saying she has had every opportunity to defend herself against the charges. “In his place, Imran Khan, used that time to delay court proceedings and go back and forth to the Supreme Court to stop the case,” she said.
In Lahore, a group of pro-Khan lawmakers came to his home in Zaman Park and chanted chants to protest his conviction and arrest. Also in the city, supporters of a rival political party handed out sweets to celebrate the arrest.
