ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Rangers on Tuesday arrested former prime minister Imran Khan from outside the Islamabad High Court, where he had gone to seek bail against multiple FIRs registered against him.
According to initial reports, Imran Khan was whisked away in an armored vehicle.
PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry confirmed that the former prime minister had been taken into custody.
A witness told Reuters that shortly after Imran Khan entered the court premises, contingents of Rangers and armoured personnel carriers showed up and arrested him.
The gate was blocked by the armoured vehicles while Khan was whisked away shortly after under heavy security, the witness said.
Sources claimed that the National Accountability Bureau has arrested Imran Khan in the Al Qadir Trust case and he was shifted to the NAB Rawalpindi office for further probe.
Imran Khan’s arrest comes a few hours after he issued a video statement criticizing the ISPR stating that “not only a single institution is sacrosanct but every citizen is respectable.”
Islamabad Police chief confirmed that the former premier had been taken into custody in the Qadir Trust case. He said that Section 144 has been imposed in the federal capital and the situation was under control.
He claimed that the former prime minister had been shifted to the NAB Rawalpindi office.
عمران خان کو قادر ٹرسٹ کیس میں گرفتار کیاگیا ہے۔ آئی جی اسلام آباد ۔
حالات معمول کے مطابق ہیں ۔ آئی جی اسلام آباد
دفعہ 144 نافذ العمل ہے خلاف ورزی کی صورت میں کارروائی عمل میں لائی جائے گی ۔
— Islamabad Police (@ICT_Police) May 9, 2023
Meanwhile, Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq has reportedly taken note of the arrest of Imran Khan and summoned the Islamabad police chief, the interior secretary and the additional attorney general.
The IHC chief justice has sought the report in which case he has been taken into custody.
The judge said that action will be taken “even if it had to be taken against ministers”.
Imran had issued a video statement earlier in the day indicating about his arrest.
Responding to a press release of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Imran Khan had said that not only a single institution was sacrosanct but every citizen was respectable.
Earlier, the ISPR had strongly condemned Khan’s statement for what the army’s media wing said “levelling baseless allegations against a senior serving military officer without providing any evidence is extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.”
Imran Khan on Tuesday released a video message before appearing in the Islamabad High Court, stating: “The ISPR has given a statement that I have insulted the army. I only named an intelligence officer who attempted to kill me twice.”
He had said: “Not only a single institution but all citizens of the nation should be respected. I am the head of the country’s largest political party; people have known me for 50 years. I don’t need to lie, this man has attempted to kill me twice. Whenever there is an investigation, I will prove that this man attempted to kill me.”
Imran Khan had said that who else was involved with this person, everyone knows who they were. “My question is, as a former prime minister, I could not file an FIR for the attempted murder on me. If the FIR had been registered and investigated, and if this person was innocent, it would have come to light. “He is such a powerful person that despite our government in Punjab, we could not name him in the FIR,” he said.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the respect for Courts by powerful corridors. Black day! pic.twitter.com/QuLCuePy9d
— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 9, 2023
In the Al-Qadir Trust case, the former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra have been accused of obtaining billions of rupees from a real estate firm for allegedly legalising a laundered amount of Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to Pakistan by the UK government when the PTI was in power.
Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi allegedly accepted Rs5 billion and hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town to protect the firm in an alleged money-laundering case.
Earlier, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that Bahria Town had illegally transferred Rs50 billion to a Pakistani national in the UK who was caught by the British National Crime Agency (NCA), which later informed the then PTI government about the laundered money.
Sana alleged that Imran Khan and his wife took Rs5 billion and a land from Bahria Town for legalising the laundered money returned by the UK.
He said that the PTI government also entered into an accord and allotted 458 kanals to a trust owned by Imran and his wife and the housing society donated the land to Al-Qadir Trust with the contract bearing signatures of the real estate developer as donor.
He claimed the non-profit organisation had only two trustees: Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi.
بدترین فسطائیت. ایک قاتل اور ظالم کو بچانے کے لیے قومی لیڈر پر بدترین تشدد اور گرفتاری pic.twitter.com/Cv7S4DkT3N
— Musarrat Cheema (@MusarratCheema) May 9, 2023
NAB has arrested Imran Khan in Al Qadar Trust case.
اسلام آباد ہائیکورٹ پر رینجرزنے قبضہ کر لیا ہے، وکلاء کو تشدد کا نشانہ بنایا جا رہا ہے، عمران خان کی گاڑی کے گرد گھیرا ڈال لیا گیا ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 9, 2023
As far as the current information is available that Khan is arrested in Al Qadar Trust case.
https://twitter.com/MusarratCheema/status/1655868769103761408
Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of judicial complex. There had been clashes between PTI Lawyers and rangers personnel while arresting Imran Khan.
https://twitter.com/MusarratCheema/status/1655868150733320192
Imran Khan was arrested from the Diary Branch of Islamabad High Court.
Imran Khan’s lawyer badly injured inside the premises of IHC. Black day for our democracy and country. pic.twitter.com/iQ8xWsXln7
— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 9, 2023
Imran Khan medical checkup
For the medical checkup of Imran Khan, a medical board under the leadership of Dr. Fareed Ullah Shah has reached NAB Rawalpindi office located in melody market Islamabad. the medical board consist of seven members and is from Poly clinic hospital Islamabad.
