Imran Khan's party accuses authorities of denying access to him
Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party on Sunday accused authorities of denying his legal team access to the leader to get his signatures on essential documents for court purposes. Khan, 70, was arrested from his Zaman Park home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of «corrupt practices» in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment. Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, is lodged in the Attock Jail after being sentenced for concealing the sale of state gifts.
The case was adjudicated by a sessions court in Islamabad. The PTI in a statement shared on a WhatsApp group termed Khan's arrest as an «abduction». «Chairman's legal team is not being given access to him for getting legal documents signed, as per the prerequisite, despite appeals made to Superintendent Attock Prison & Additional Home Secretary Punjab,» it said.
«This doesn't sound like an arrest at all, it sounds like an abduction.» Khan was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore and taken by road to Attock City, the last major town of Punjab on the boundary with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Initially, it was expected that he would be kept in the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, but, for security reasons, he was taken to Attock. His arrest failed to bring crowds of supporters on the streets, a stark contrast with his arrest on May 9 when thousands of them came out to protest against the detention.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is leading the PTI in the absence of Khan, in a video message urged workers to take to the streets but remain peaceful. «Peaceful protest is our right but no state asset is to be damaged. Don't take the law in your hands,» he cautioned.
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