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 expected in November.
"Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence," Khan's lawyer, Intezar Panjotha, told Reuters. "We are filing a petition against the decision in high court."
His party called for peaceful protests against the decision, but there was only a limited public response on Saturday evening.
The arrest was the latest in a series of blows that have weakened Khan's political standing, after he fell out with Pakistan's powerful military and his party splintered.
Lahore Police Chief Bilal Siddique Kamiana confirmed the arrest and told Reuters Khan was being transferred to the capital, Islamabad. He would then be held at Central Adiala Jail in nearby Rawalpindi, according to the arrest warrant.
Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said it had filed another appeal to the Supreme Court earlier on Saturday.
Khan, 70, is a former cricket star who went on to forge a political career, serving as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He has denied wrongdoing and in a pre-recorded video address released by his party he asked supporters to protest peacefully.
"Police have arrested Imran Khan from his residence," Khan's lawyer, Intezar Panjotha, told Reuters. "We are filing a petition against the decision in high court."
His party called for peaceful protests against the decision, but there was only a limited public response on Saturday evening.
The arrest was the latest in a series of blows that have weakened Khan's political standing, after he fell out with Pakistan's powerful military and his party splintered.
Lahore Police Chief Bilal Siddique Kamiana confirmed the arrest and told Reuters Khan was being transferred to the capital, Islamabad. He would then be held at Central Adiala Jail in nearby Rawalpindi, according to the arrest warrant.
Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said it had filed another appeal to the Supreme Court earlier on Saturday.
Khan, 70, is a former cricket star who went on to forge a political career, serving as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He has denied wrongdoing and in a pre-recorded video address released by his party he asked supporters to protest peacefully.
from Reuters
Everyone is gradually waking up but Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteIn what way is this miscarriage of justice waking up?
DeleteWhy don't you wake up yourself and go put Obi in power without being able to show how he arrived at his delusional victory without the numbers to prove and with no agents in most of the polling booths?
Stop being a paper tiger. Wake up and show Nigeria that you have woken up.
Go to Abia where your party won and wake them up there. Tell Iteti Kingibe and Victor Umeh to wake up and refuse the money they went to Abuja to make. Tell them to ask tough questions when they have not lined their pockets satisfactorily. Tell Peter Obi to take time out from his personal project of court jetting to address them.
Head all over the countries of Africa where they are buying fuel at the market price for years and wake them up. Show how much you have contributed to Nigeria in taxes so people can know why those poorer than you in Nigeria must continue to subsidize fuel for you, thereby tanking the economy and leaving no money for any tangible system of development. Present the legacy of tax-paying in your entire clan and how much you have sacrificed for Nigeria before expecting it to parent you with no thought of self-responsibility. Lay out your own plan for how crude bought at 480-490 naira then imported, farmed, stored, transported and held locally can be sold at the 187 you were legally stealing it as can be sold for cheaper by a government of two months that has prioritized refinery repair.
Let the president please sell these remaining two refineries despite any daily exercise NLC and other jesters want to partake in. They have delayed and blackmailed Nigeria enough. We see the great leap forward when the telecoms industry was privatized. Same thing when government gave up on hospitality and tapered funds funneled into cement NIPOST. It's time for the petroleum sector to be completely privatized so that Nigerians can have stability in supply of fuel and power, introduce transparency into that sector and profit as shareholders.
Can never happen in Nigeria 🥺
ReplyDeleteAnd at 70 years old, no less. If we could see our future we would surely choose different paths. Ambition can be both an uplifter and a destroyer. My mom always tell me a Biblical story of a king who asked God to live longer and God granted his wish, gave him 15 more years of life beyond what God intended for him. In those years, he saw his people overthrown, him being tossed off the throne, outsiders ruling his nation, imprisonment and poverty was his end, what was the point of him living longer?.
ReplyDeleteIn all we are desiring and seeking, better we let God’s will be done, and that we get a good end. Too much ambition can destroy you just as it can build you. Forget a glorious beginning, it is a glorious end that matters. Once a star cricketer, a prime minister, now just a prisoner. See life!