Pakistani police served arrest warrants to the former prime minister Imran Khan to ensure his appearance in court on charges of misusing his office to sell state gifts, authorities have said, after Khan’s supporters tried to prevent police entry into his home.
The election commission of Pakistan in October found the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician guilty of unlawfully selling gifts from foreign dignitaries.
The Federal Investigation Agency then filed charges against him in an anti-graft court, which last week issued the arrest warrants after Khan failed to appear in court despite repeated summons.
Khan has been demanding a snap election since he was removed from office in 2022, a demand that was rejected by his successor, Shehbaz Sharif, who has said the vote would be held as scheduled later this year.
Khan led countrywide protest campaigns to press for an early vote last year and was shot and wounded at one of the rallies.
Referring to his absence from the court and the shooting incident, Khan said on Sunday: “They [the police] know there is a threat against my life,” adding that the courts did not provide adequate security.
Khan’s aide Fawad Chaudhry said he couldn’t be arrested because he had secured protective bail from a high court.
Chaudhry said the government wanted to sow political chaos and avoid an early election by arresting the former premier, who was still popular among the country’s youth and urban voters.
Islamabad police said in a statement that when Khan wasn’t found at his residence in Lahore, they served arrest warrants.
Khan is required to appear in court on 7 March.
If he fails to do so, police will be required to arrest him and present him to court, according to the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah.
Following the police’s attempt to arrest him, Khan addressed workers from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party at his Zaman Park home and said he is being summoned for “fake cases” and that his life was under threat.
“I have said this earlier, and I was proven right when I was attacked, that there is a threat to my life,” Khan told his supporters.
“They keep summoning me to various courts in Lahore and Islamabad where they don’t provide security despite knowing about the danger that I face.”
Khan was removed from power in April last year after he lost a parliamentary vote of confidence and is facing dozens of cases against him, ranging from charges like terrorism and corruption.
On Sunday, police officials, who had traveled from the capital, Islamabad, were seen outside the entrance of Khan’s residence.
Islamabad police inspector general, Akbar Nasir Khan, told Geo News TV channel that the team went to Lahore to arrest Khan, not just to serve the warrant.
Nasir added that according to the law, the first step of a non-bailable arrest warrant was to serve notice to the accused and make the arrest immediately.