The Pakistani police have entered the Lahore residence of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in a continuous operation to detain the official due to the sale of gifts received from foreign heads of state, media reports said on Saturday.
Several hours after Khan departed for the hearings on the gift’s sale to the capital city Islamabad on Saturday, the Punjab police entered his residence in Zaman Park and detained over 20 party members, Pakistani broadcaster Geo news reported.
The former prime minister criticized the police actions and said that they were a part of a so-called London Plan aimed at bringing an older brother of incumbent Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to power.
“Meanwhile Punjab police have led an assault on my house in Zaman Park where Bushra Begum [Khan’s spouse] is alone. Under what law are they doing this? This is part of London Plan where commitments were made to bring absconder Nawaz Sharif to power as quid pro quo for agreeing to one appointment,” Khan tweeted.
On Monday, a detachment of law enforcement officers arrived in Lahore from the Pakistani capital after a court reinstated a warrant for Khan’s arrest for the sale of gifts received from foreign leaders. The move sparked clashes with Khan’s supporters, which resulted in an arrest of several party members and a commander of the police team sustained injuries.
In October 2022, Pakistan’s election commission stripped Khan of his parliamentary mandate as well as the right to be elected and appointed to both the country’s federal and regional legislatures for five years after it found him guilty of selling 52 valuables stored in Toshakhana, the Pakistani state treasury, and hiding information about gifts that he received personally.
In April 2022, then-opposition leader Sharif said that Khan had sold state treasures in Dubai with a total value of 140 million Pakistani rupees ($500,000 dollars).
