POLITICSPAKISTAN
Pakistan: Former PM Imran Khan’s home stormed by police
3 hours ago3 hours ago
Imran Khan has appeared in an Islamabad court following the suspension of a warrant for his arrest. The former PM says the accusations against him are politicized and is calling for fresh elections.
https://p.dw.com/p/4OsVP
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared in court in Islamabad on Saturday.
Meanwhile, police entered Khan’s home in Lahore, the former prime minister said in a tweet.
A day earlier, one of the country’s top courts halted an arrest warrant for the former head of government.
Imran Khan, whose government was ousted by a no-confidence vote in April 2022, has been calling for snap elections. He was replaced by a coalition government which Imran Khan claims “cannot win free and fair elections.”
Former Pakistani PM Khan appears in court
03:15
What are the accusations against Imran Khan?
Imran Khan was addressing charges in an Islamabad court of unlawfully selling state gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries will he was in office.
Khan says he received the gifts legally.
The former prime minister told the Reuters news agency that he had formed a committee to lead his center-right Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in case of his arrest.
The former prime minister failed to attend a hearing on Tuesday, after which a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Imran Khan told DW that he did not attend the hearing because it was a “death trap” that lacked proper security guarantees.
“The only reason this whole big thing blew up because of one appearance that I didn’t make,” he said. “And that appearance was in this in a court where all my security team told me that there was no protection.”
“On one hand, the government says your life is under threat. Secondly, they want me to appear in this particular court, which is a death trap,” he said.
“It was only that one appearance I missed and that led to these warrants.”
Khan was shot and wounded while campaigning in November.
The former prime minister has argued that the charges against him are politicized, constituting an attempt to prevent him from running from office.
“Ever since my government was ousted 11 months ago, there were 37 by-elections. My party has swept 30 of them,” he said in an interview for DW. “All the opponents are petrified that whenever there are elections, they will be decimated. As a result, they are trying to do everything to get me out of the race.”
“The reason why there is political chaos right now in Pakistan because we have a hotchpotch of a government which has failed completely,” he said.
Police raid Imran Khan’s Lahore home
Pakistani police have entered the Lahore property of Imran Khan, the former prime minister tweeted.
Khan said that the “siege” in Lahore was aimed at preventing the politician from conducting his election campaign.
He said that it was “clear” that the government sought to arrest him despite the suspension of the Tuesday warrant. But Khan said that he was “going to Islamabad to appear in court because I believe in the rule of law.”
Meanwhile, parts of the capital were sealed by police on Saturday, Islamabad police chief Akbar Nasir said.
“We have deployed heavy security to make sure there is no threat to his life,” Nasir was cited by the German Press Agency (dpa) as saying.
sdi/jcg (Reuters, dpa, AP)
