From high office to high security prison for ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan

ATTOCK, Pakistan: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan awoke on Sunday as an inmate in a high-security prison after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for corruption, a development that could end his future in politics.

The court ruled on Saturday that national cricketing hero Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the country’s leading opposition figure, had concealed assets after selling state gifts.

The prison sentence could bar him from politics under a law that prohibits people with a criminal conviction from holding or running for public office.

He could also lose the chairmanship of the party he founded, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI.

Critics say efforts to put Khan behind bars are politically motivated.

It’s the second time this year that Khan has been detained, joining other former Pakistani prime ministers who had been arrested and seen military interventions throughout the country’s political history.

But his current residence at the Attock prison is a far cry from his custodial conditions in May when he was taken to a well-appointed guesthouse on a police compound in Islamabad under a Supreme Court order.

He was then allowed visitors and meetings with party colleagues.

Attock prison, in eastern Punjab province, is notorious for its harsh conditions and its inmates include convicted militants.

Authorities have further tightened security around the prison, which already has armed guards in watchtowers, by erecting barriers and blocking roads to keep people away.

They have also instructed locals not to allow media onto their roofs to stop photographs and videos from leaking.

Peaceful protests

PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen told The Associated Press that police at the prison refused entry to a legal team who went to see Khan. He said the party will file an appeal as there are “plenty of loopholes in the verdict.”

Khan’s deputy and former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who PTI said would lead the party in Khan’s absence, said their leader had been denied a fair trial.

“We have to struggle for his freedom - we have to fight legally and politically and move in a peaceful way in line with Imran Khan’s directives,” he said in a video address.

The party’s top decision-making body met Saturday and called for nation-wide peaceful protests, according to a statement.

Reaction was muted, compared to the violence that roiled the country when Khan was briefly arrested in May.

In May, Khan’s arrest on corruption charges caused a wave of violent protests that swept the country . Pakistan’s Supreme Court days later ordered his release, saying his arrest was illegal.

The US State Department has said that PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest was Pakistan’s internal matter.

“Cases against Imran Khan and other politicians on Pakistan are an internal matter,” US State Department’s spokesperson was quoted by Dawn as saying.

The spokesperson added: “We call for the respect of democratic principles and the rule of law in Pakistan, as we do around the world.”

Britain’s foreign ministry said it was monitoring the situation in Pakistan closely.

“The UK has a close and long-standing relationship with Pakistan,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said. “We support democratic principles and adherence to the rule of law. We are closely monitoring the situation.”