ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan addressed court docket officers Thursday and mentioned that parliamentary elections held earlier this 12 months have been stolen from his social gathering, which he claimed is being victimized.
There was no quick remark from the federal government about Khan’s allegation. Earlier than his arrest, Khan had accused the Election Fee of Pakistan of changing the success of his social gathering right into a defeat. The fee has repeatedly denied allegations of fraud within the Feb. 8 elections.
“It was the largest theft that was dedicated on the general public mandate,” Khan mentioned in remarks to the Supreme Courtroom through video hyperlink.
It was his second such look since he started serving a three-year sentence for corruption in August, and it was the primary time Khan was heard in open court docket.
The listening to earlier than the excessive court docket in Islamabad involved Khan’s attraction in a case coping with graft legal guidelines, which have been modified in 2022 and which the previous premier has mentioned have been aimed toward preserving him behind bars.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf social gathering acquired probably the most seats within the Feb. 8 election nevertheless it lacked a easy majority to rule. Khan’s social gathering refused to type a coalition authorities, paving the pay for his political rivals, together with the social gathering of one other former premier, Nawaz Sharif, to type the federal government.
Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician who served as prime minister from 2018 was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. Nonetheless, he stays a preferred opposition determine and tens of millions of his supporters have been ready to see him since August, when he was arrested after a court docket sentenced him for corruption.
His look earlier than the court docket on Thursday was not livestreamed on a court docket order. It disadvantaged Khan’s tens of millions of supporters of an opportunity to see him.
Throughout the court docket listening to, Khan advised the judges he had been held in solitary confinement at a jail within the garrison metropolis of Rawalpindi, the place he’s presently serving a number of jail phrases.
Khan additionally complained that he was neither given the required materials to arrange arguments nor allowed to satisfy together with his attorneys. Nonetheless, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa stopped him from making feedback concerning the elections, saying it’s a completely different matter and the court docket was listening to a case regarding adjustments within the graft legal guidelines.
The case was later adjourned for every week and the court docket directed authorities to permit Khan to satisfy together with his lawyer.
