Pakistani police arrested former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday, minutes after a federal court sentenced him to three years in prison on charges of illegally selling state gifts.
The 70-year-old popular politician was taken into custody in the eastern city of Lahore and was being taken to a prison facility in the national capital, Islamabad, where the verdict was announced, government and Khan representatives said.
Unless overturned by an appeals court, the conviction will disqualify Khan from national politics for five years and end his chances of contesting Pakistan’s next elections, scheduled for later this year, legal experts said, citing election laws.
Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said it had quickly challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.
“It’s absolutely shameful and disgusting how a mockery of law is going on just because the wish is to disqualify and jail Imran Khan,” the PTI said in a statement.
The sentence relates to an inquiry by the country’s election commission, which found the former cricket legend guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts while serving as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
The judge ruled Saturday in Khan’s absence that charges against him in the so-called Toshakhana case were proven.
Toshakhana is a repository where foreign dignitaries’ gifts to government officials are stored, but officials are allowed to keep gifts after paying a certain percentage of the price to Toshakhana administration.
“He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer willfully and intentionally,” the judge wrote in his verdict. “He cheated while providing information of gifts he obtained from Toshakhana, which later proved to be false and inaccurate. His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt.”
Khan was accused of “deliberately” concealing proceeds from the reported sale of the gifts he had received during foreign trips worth $635,000. He repeatedly complained of having an unfair trial and sought termination of the proceedings.
Prior to his detention Saturday, Khan released a video statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that his “arrest was expected & I recorded this message before my arrest.” He urged his followers to remain “peaceful, steadfast and strong.”
In an earlier statement on X this week, the former prime minister said: “My message to the nation on the ongoing ToshaKhana case where I have been continuously denied the Constitutional Right to Fair Trial and not even allowed to present witnesses in my defense.”
He added: “The superior courts must intervene immediately to stop this miscarriage of justice in what feels like a military-styled mis-trial.”
Pakistani Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, addressing a hurriedly called news conference on Saturday, rejected allegations that the government had anything to do with the court ruling and insisted Khan was given full opportunity to defend himself.
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