Pakistan’s Islamabad Police and Punjab Police arrived at his Lahore residence on Sunday, March 5, to detain former PM and PTI President Imran Khan. The police kept waiting outside and Imran Khan kept addressing his party workers inside.
Earlier, the Islamabad Police said in one of its tweets that Imran Khan was evading arrest and the police officers went to Imran Khan’s room, but did not find him there. On the other hand, the police had to face a huge gathering of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers outside Imran Khan’s house. They gathered there on the call of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary.
An order has been issued to take Imran Khan into custody due to his continuous absence from the hearing of the Toshakhana court. We tell you what this matter is. Before that, know what has happened till now in 8 points.
- Islamabad police reached the residence of Zaman Park in Lahore to arrest Imran.
- Here he was confronted by a large number of PTI workers, who had gathered outside his residence on Fawad Chaudhary’s call.
- The sessions court judge had issued a non-bailable warrant against Imran for his continuous non-appearance in the hearing of the Toshakhana case.
- Police say that action will be taken against those who obstruct the arrest.
- Islamabad Police Chief says will not go back empty handed.
- PTI is threatening a massive protest if Imran Khan is arrested.
- Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that Imran’s arrest is being done on the orders of the court and not on the orders of the government.
What is the Toshakhana case against Imran Khan?
Toshkhana is a government department under the Cabinet Division in Pakistan. It was built in 1974 and here the gifts received by Pakistani officials, leaders sitting on government posts are kept. Only the President and the Prime Minister are allowed to keep such gifts with themselves. But that too has its limits. If the value of a gift is less than Rs 30,000, then the President or the Prime Minister can keep the gift with themselves. But more expensive gifts should be kept in the toshakhana.
Even after this limit, if an officer wants to have the gift with him, he can do so by paying a certain percentage of the value of the gift. This was usually around 20 percent of the value of the gift – which Imran raised to 50 percent after coming to power in 2018.
Imran Khan is accused of not sharing the details of gifts not deposited in the Toshakhana (during his time as Prime Minister) and the proceeds from their alleged sale. Its complaint was filed by the MPs of the ruling coalition last year. On 21 October 2022, the Election Commission of Pakistan concluded that the former prime minister had in fact made “false statements and false declarations” regarding the gifts.
Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal of an Islamabad court had on February 28 issued a non-bailable arrest warrant of the former prime minister for his repeated failure to appear before the court in the Toshakhana case. On that day, Imran personally had four hearings in the court and got bail in three out of four cases.