ISLAMABAD (SONNA) \u2014 Pakistan\u2019s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested Tuesday as he appeared in a court in the country\u2019s capital, Islamabad, to face charges in multiple graft cases. Security agents dragged Khan outside and shoved him into an armored car before whisking him away.<\/p>\n
The arrest, which marks a dramatic escalation on Pakistan\u2019s political scene, drew nationwide condemnation from supporters of the popular opposition leader and former cricket star turned Islamist politician.<\/p>\n
Khan was dragged outside the Islamabad High Court and pushed into a police vehicle by agents from the National Accountability Bureau, according to Fawad Chaudhry, a senior official with Khan\u2019s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.<\/p>\n
Chaudhry denounced the arrest as \u201can abduction.\u201d Pakistan\u2019s independent GEO TV broadcast images of the 72-year-old Khan being pulled by security forces towards an armored vehicle, which took him away.<\/p>\n
Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has claimed his ouster was illegal and a Western conspiracy and has campaigned against the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, demanding early elections.<\/p>\n
After Khan was taken away, a scuffle broke out between Khan\u2019s supporters and police outside the court. Chaudhry said some of Khan\u2019s lawyers and supporters were injured in the scuffle, as were several policemen. Khan\u2019s party immediately complained to the Islamabad High Court, which requested a police report explaining the charges for Khan\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
Officials from the anti-corruption body said that Pakistan\u2019s National Accountability Bureau had issued arrest warrants for Khan last week in a separate graft case, for which he had not obtained bail \u2014 something that would protect him from arrest under the country\u2019s laws. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Khan would be brought to appear before an anti-graft tribunal later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Khan was later moved to the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, where he was to be questioned at the offices of the National Accountability Bureau. He was also to undergo a medical checkup, according to procedure, police said.<\/p>\n
Khan had arrived in Islamabad earlier on Tuesday from the nearby city of Lahore, where he resides, to face charges before the Islamabad High Court in multiple graft cases. He has claimed that the cases, which include terrorism charges, are a plot by Sharif\u2019s government to discredit him.<\/p>\n
As the news of the arrest spread, Khan\u2019s supporters started gathering in Lahore, chanting anti-government slogans.<\/p>\n
Source: AP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISLAMABAD (SONNA) \u2014 Pakistan\u2019s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested Tuesday as he appeared in a court in the country\u2019s capital, Islamabad, to face charges in multiple graft cases. Security agents dragged Khan outside and shoved him into an armored car before whisking him away. The arrest, which marks a dramatic escalation on Pakistan\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":416600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416602,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416599\/revisions\/416602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}