Court indicts Former Pakistani PM, Imran Khan, for graft

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been indicted by a court for unlawfully selling state gifts during his premiership between 2018-22, according to Pakistani local news reports.

Khan, 70, was arrested on Tuesday by the country’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in another corruption case.

The indictment followed a decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) last October which found the former prime minister guilty of “corrupt practices” and disqualified him from being a member of parliament.

The ECP afterwards sought proceedings under criminal law against Khan, who is also the chief of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Khan has vehemently denied those charges.

A NAB court in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday approved an eight-day police remand of the former prime minister for probe into the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case under which he was arrested a day earlier. The agency had sought a 14-day physical remand.

The action by the anti-corruption body has triggered violent protests across the country, with at least three of the four provinces asking the federal government to deploy troops to restore order.

The PTI chief has been slapped with dozens of cases, including terrorism and corruption among others, since he was ousted as prime minister last April in a no-confidence motion. Khan said the military was behind the move to remove him from office.

He has since held dozens of political rallies calling for early national elections, calling the current coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as “imported”.

Khan’s popularity has gone up since his removal as the government has failed to address an unprecedented economic crisis, with price rise impacting millions of people.

His supporters have poured out on the streets across the country, venting their anger against the powerful military, which they blame for Khan’s ouster.