Former prime minister and now leader of the Justice Movement, Imran Khan was arrested for damage to state funds and corruption. He ended up in handcuffs just as he was in a court in Islambad to attend one of a dozen allegations of corruption cases. This was announced by the Pakistani Minister of the Interior.
Premier until a year ago, Khan appeared before the court judge for a hearing in the case in which he is accused of "inciting mutiny and violence" against the leader of the opposing political party. Khan was arrested in court by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as part of another corruption case linked to the Al-Qadir Trust. The former prime minister, his wife Bushra Bibi and other members of Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are involved in an investigation into an agreement between the then-PTI government and Pakistani real estate magnate Malik Riaz.
They are also accused of having improperly obtained the land to found Al-Quadir University. The arrest warrant dates back to May Day. "Imran Khan is accused of corruption", reads the order of the NAB, "after the arrest the accused will be presented before the court for authorization to detention for the period necessary for the completion of the preliminary investigation".
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Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrested
A video broadcast on local TV channels showed Khan being dragged by dozens of paramilitary rangers in an armored car inside the premises of the Islamabad High Court of which we provide only a photo.
"As we reached the biometric room of the courthouse to mark the presence, dozens of rangers attacked us," said Ali Bukhari, a lawyer for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. "They beat him and dragged him out," he said. It is still unclear where he was taken.
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Water cannons to disperse supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrested today in Pakistan, May 9, 2023
Soon after news of the arrest broke, Khan's supporters began gathering in Lahore, chanting anti-government slogans. Police intervened in an attempt to disperse demonstrators blocking some of the city's main roads. In the port center of Karachi, police used batons and tear gas to clear a key artery from hundreds of protesters. Protesters also blocked roads in the capital Islamabad, nearby Rawalpindi and Peshawar.
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Khan's supporters block roads
His arrest follows months of political crisis and comes just hours after military authorities reprimanded the former international cricketer for claiming a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him. "He was deceiving people," said the man who tried to kill him last November with an AK-47 rifle, while he was only wounded in the leg.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan
"Imran Khan has been arrested in the Qadir Trust case," the official Twitter account of the Islamabad police said, referring to one of the corruption cases.
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Water cannons to disperse supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrested today in Pakistan, May 9, 202