Pakistan: Police try again to arrest ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan
Imran Khan supporters outside his home in Lahore as police try to enter, March 14, 2023. © AKHTAR SOOMRO / REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Clashes broke out between riot police who came to arrest Imran Khan and dozens of supporters of the former prime minister, overthrown in April 2022 by a no-confidence motion, banned from the elections for five years and faced with a multitude of legal proceedings.
The former cricket star is refusing to go to court to answer the charges.
This is the second time the police have tried to arrest him.
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Pakistani riot police on Tuesday used water cannons to repel supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who were trying to stop officers from arresting him at his home.
It is the second time this month that police have been dispatched from the capital Islamabad to Mr Khan's home in Lahore (east) to execute an arrest warrant, after he evaded several summonses to appear in court, citing security reasons.
In November, he was
shot and wounded
during a political rally.
He attributed the assassination attempt to his successor, Shehbaz Sharif, and a senior army intelligence officer, without providing evidence for his allegations.
"
We are just here to execute the arrest warrant and arrest him
," Shehzad Nadeem, a senior Islamabad police official, told reporters outside Mr Khan's house.
The police were greeted at the former
prime minister's
home by at least 200 activists from his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Justice Movement), some of whom were brandishing sticks or throwing stones .
“
The police came here to put me in jail
,” Mr Khan said, in a video recorded inside the house and posted on Twitter.
“
They think the Nation will fall asleep when Imran Khan goes to jail
,” he added.
Undeclared diplomatic gifts
Imran Khan, 70, has been summoned to court to answer charges that he failed to declare all diplomatic gifts received under his tenure.
Luxury watches, designer jewelry, cufflinks or gold pens.
In 3 and a half years of mandate, Imran Khan would have received dozens of gifts during his official trips abroad, in particular in the countries of the Gulf.
The law authorizes them to keep the least expensive gifts or to acquire the most expensive gifts for unbeatable sums.
Nothing unusual so far, as evidenced by a gigantic document of more than 400 pages declassified last weekend and which reveals that over the past 20 years, virtually all members of the Pakistani political and administrative elite have benefited in the part of their duties with a staggering list of luxury goods.
Imran Khan is accused by his political opponents, now in power, of having hidden from the tax authorities the list of presents received and of having resold some of them at astronomical prices reaching up to 2 million dollars, such as this watch offered by the Saudi King Salman, a unique piece, set with diamonds, described as a masterpiece by collectors.
Elected in 2018 on promises of change and the fight against corruption, the cricketing legend must now answer corruption charges.
(With
AFP
)
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