Pakistan’s Imran Khan will face fresh charges of contempt in August, his lawyer says
Pakistan’s election oversight physique mentioned on Tuesday it could indict the nation’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan subsequent week on charges of publicly insulting its officers final yr.
Khan appeared earlier than a particular tribunal of the Election Fee of Pakistan together with his legal professionals amid tight safety in the capital, Islamabad.
After a quick listening to, Shoaib Shaheen, one of Khan’s legal professionals, mentioned the tribunal determined to cost the previous premier with contempt on Aug. 2.
Khan is accused of calling the top of the electoral physique, Sikandar Sultan Rajaa, and a number of other of its officers “private servants” to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at a number of gatherings. Sharif changed Khan in April 2022 after he was ousted from energy in a no-confidence vote in parliament.
Khan had been avoiding appearances earlier than the tribunal for the previous a number of months, saying the electoral physique does not have the authority to cost him with contempt.
On Monday, the election oversight physique ordered Khan’s arrest after he repeatedly failed to indicate up earlier than its tribunal to face contempt charges over his public outbursts in opposition to election fee officers.
Khan was not arrested and confirmed up of his personal volition on Tuesday earlier than the tribunal.
Since his ouster, Khan has been slapped with greater than 150 authorized instances, together with a number of on charges of corruption, “terrorism” and inciting individuals to violence over lethal protests in Could that noticed his followers assault authorities and army property throughout the nation.
Violence erupted throughout Pakistan in Could when police arrested Khan in a graft case from a courtroom in Islamabad. Khan, a cricket star turned Islamist politician, nonetheless has an enormous grassroots following in Pakistan. The times of rioting by his followers subsided solely after Khan was launched on an order from the Supreme Courtroom.
Since then, a number of different courts have additionally given Khan safety from arrest in a number of instances.
Khan additionally appeared earlier than the nation’s Federal Investigation Company on Tuesday to face charges of exposing a secret doc. Final week, Sharif’s authorities mentioned it could cost Khan for “exposing an official secret doc” final yr when he waved a confidential diplomatic letter at a rally, describing it as “proof” that he was threatened and claiming his ouster was a conspiracy.
The doc, dubbed Cipher, has not been made public however was apparently a diplomatic correspondence between a Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Overseas Affairs in Islamabad.
Khan claims his ouster was half of a U.S. plot, a declare which has been denied by Sharif and Washington.
