ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, Pakistan: The former Prime Minister and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has been arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.
Earlier, Imran Khan was sentenced to three-year imprisonment under Section 174 of the Election Act 2017 and disqualified for five years in the Toshakhana Case.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamayun Dilawar announced the verdict on Saturday amid tight security arraignments, rejecting Imran Khan’s petition to declare the Toshkhana Case inadmissible.
Hamayun Dilawar declared that the Chairman PTI was found guilty of indulging in corrupt practices and submitted a false affidavit.
Imran Khan was also slapped a fine of Rs 100,000.
The judge ordered the IG Islamabad to arrest Imran Khan immediately.
Chairman Imran Khan’s message:
My arrest was expected & I recorded this message before my arrest.
It is one more step in fulfilling London Plan but I want my party workers to remain peaceful, steadfast and strong.
We bow before no one but Allah who is Al Haq. We believe in… pic.twitter.com/1kqg6HQVac
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 5, 2023
Imran Khan arrested from his Zaman Park residence
Soon after the verdict, a heavy contingent of Punjab police barged into the residence of the former Prime Minister Khan in Zaman Park and arrested him.
تحریری فیصلہ ابھی تک پہنچا نہیں ہوگا لیکن فکسڈ میچ کے تحت سب کو تیار کیا ہوا تھا
عمران خان صاحب کو گرفتار کرکے پنجاب پولیس روانہ ہو گئی ہے
pic.twitter.com/senjT6xE5h— Farrukh Habib (@FarrukhHabibISF) August 5, 2023
Imran Khan was shifted to Islamabad from Lahore though vehicles after his arrest to be put in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.
Sources said that after the arrest of the Chairman PTI, his staff members Ali Khan, Ali Niazi, Nauman Afzal and Owais Niazi have all been arrested from Zaman Park.
زمان پارک سے عمران خان صاحب کی گرفتاری کے بعد انکے سٹاف کو بھی گرفتار کرلیا گیا ہے https://t.co/1I4C4CZr9r
— Farrukh Habib (@FarrukhHabibISF) August 5, 2023
Meanwhile, according to reports, the law clerk of Imran Khan’s Counsel and Senior Advocate Khawaja Haris, Syed Daman-e-Ali, was abducted by unknown persons in plain clothes on Saturday morning from inside the premises of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Khawaja Haris filed an application to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial for an appropriate action and ensuring his recovery, also alleging that his clerk was threatened the certain identified persons that if he filed the petitions in the higher courts, he would face serious consequences.
Earlier in the morning, the PTI filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Aamer Farooq’s yesterday decision.
On Friday, Justice Aamer Farooq set aside the Trial Court’s verdict that had declared the Toshakhana Reference filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the PTI Chairman as maintainable for criminal proceedings, and ordered the same Trial Court to decide the matter again after re-hearing the case.
However, the judge rejected the PTI Chief’s appeal to transfer the case to another court and issued a notice for next week on a petition to restore Imran Khan’s right of defence in the Toshakhana Trial.
In his Twitter statement on Friday, the PTI Secretary Information Raoof Hasan said “If the IHC has expressed lack of faith in the judgements of judge Hamayun Dilawar, and about whom there is a strong impression of rabid partisanship, does he deserve another opportunity to adjudicate the (Toshakhana) case? This creates doubts about the IHC as well.”
عمران خان 12 مئی سے زیر التوا مقدمہ ۂمایوں جج کی عدالت سے ٹرانسفر کرنے کی درخواست کو مسترد کرنے گزشتہ روز دوپہر میں فیصلہ سنایا گیا مقدمہ واپس وہی جج سنے گا جو اپنا ذہن بتا چکا ہو
جج کا رویہ اور عمران خان سے متعلق بغض بھری فیس بک پوسٹوں کو نظرا انداز کردیا گیا
ایسا ٹرائل جس میں… pic.twitter.com/OZoTQC0Hu8— Farrukh Habib (@FarrukhHabibISF) August 5, 2023
