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Imran Khan gets barred from Pakistan elections after guilty verdict

A police convoy believed to be ushering Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Attock prison, on the outskirts of Islamabad, after his arrest on Saturday. Khan was sent to jail for three years after a court found him guilty of graft, a move likely to bar him from standing in elections due later this year. (Ghulam Rasool/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
By Ismail Dilawar and Khalid Qayum Bloomberg News

Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan will not be able to contest elections scheduled to be held by November, after he was convicted of hiding the proceeds from selling state gifts when he was in power.

The ex-cricket star was swiftly arrested by police on Saturday after a sessions court in Islamabad sentenced him to three years in prison. Khan, who denies any wrongdoing and faces more than 170 other cases, will challenge the decision in a higher court.

The latest political development clears the way for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to hold elections as the government’s term ends next week. Sharif is looking to secure a mandate allowing him to continue with the bailout program with the International Monetary Fund that he revived in late June on the backdrop of record inflation and interest rates.

“The court declared Imran Khan as guilty in a judgment, which is lacking witnesses,” Naeem Haider Panjhuta, Khan’s spokesman on legal affairs, said in a posting on social media. “Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in prison and 100,000 rupees fine in the state gifts case.”

Pakistan’s government said Khan will be automatically disqualified from the election process. “He will need to serve the sentence,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on legal affairs Attaullah Tarar told reporters.

Khan won’t be able to take part in any elections for five years and he’s ineligible to hold public office. The 70-year-old has said the state gifts case and other charges ranging from corruption to murder were an attempt to keep him from participating in politics.

This is the second time Khan has been arrested by police but unlike the previous one earlier this year, which brought people to the streets and triggered attacks on state-owned property, there is little reaction.

In recent months, the military and the government carried out a sweeping crackdown on Khan’s party, leading to key members abandoning the firebrand leader and joining other groups. Khan has spent much of his time holed up in his home in Punjab province, only venturing out to seek bail for the dozens of cases he faces.

“We may not see a major protest immediately as PTI is under pressure as well as suppressed,” said Mazhar Abbas, Karachi-based political analyst. “Khan still has two forums available to challenge this verdict in Islamabad High Court and supreme court.”

It may take months for Khan to appeal the verdict in the lower court, effectively putting him out of the election race.

In a pre-recorded video released by his party on social media after the arrest, Khan asked his supporters to protest his jailing. “Don’t stay at home quietly,” he said. “Keep doing peaceful protest until you get your right and through a vote, elect a government of your choice.”

Local media said Khan could be moved to a jail in the garrison town of Rawalpindi while his party said the politician was being flown to Islamabad by helicopter. It’s not clear where Khan was headed for after local television stations showed footage of police waiting outside Khan’s heavily guarded home in Lahore, the provincial capital.

The case stemmed from a complaint by Election Commission of Pakistan, which accused Khan of not officially disclosing funds he got from selling gifts he received from foreign leaders when he was the premier. Last year, the commission had disqualified Khan as a lawmaker in the same case and it later filed criminal proceedings against him.

The commission’s inquiry revealed Khan bought gifts including expensive Graff and Rolex watches, jewelry and carpets at concessional prices from the state treasury and some of them even sold in local market.

The surprise verdict came after the high court on Friday ordered the lower court to decide on whether the state gifts case was a criminal offense. The lower court judge decided on Saturday morning that the case was a criminal one before handing down a guilty verdict, saying “Khan’s dishonesty was established without a doubt.”

Khan, who was not present for the proceedings, was immediately sentenced to jail. His party has called his arrest illegal. “Every development of this case, from Khan’s trial to his abduction, is illegal,” PTI said in a post. “We will win the legal battle.”