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Imran Khan remanded in 8-day custody of Pakistan's anti-corruption body
The 70-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician was taken into custody by the paramilitary Rangers on Tuesday on the orders of the anti-graft agency NAB.
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Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was remanded in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Al-Qadir Trust case for eight days on Wednesday, his lawyers said, a day after he was arrested on graft charges.
"The court has approved eight days of physical remand of Imran Khan," Ali Bukhari, a lawyer for Khan, told news agency AFP by phone after the closed-door hearing.
Earlier in the day, a Pakistan court indicted Khan in the Toshakhana case on charges of illegally selling state gifts during his premiership between 2018-22, broadcaster Geo News reported. The indictment came a day after Imran Khan was arrested by the country's paramilitary force on the orders of an anti-graft agency in another corruption case.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrested
Meanwhile, local reports claimed former Pakistani foreign minister and Imran Khan's close aide Shah Mahmood Qureshi was arrested in on Wednesday.
The embattled cricketer-turned-politician has been in the dock for buying gifts he received as Pakistan's prime minister at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profit. Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
Khan was present in an Islamabad district and sessions court where judge Humayun Dilawar conducted the hearing.
Pakistan's GEO television broadcast footage also showed Khan appearing before a judge at a temporary court inside a police compound on Wednesday in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case. The former premier was seen seated in a chair, holding documents. The judge is expected to rule on the request for a 14-day detention later in the day.
Khan's arrest resulted in violent protests in several cities and attacks on military installations, forcing the government to deploy Army troops in parts of Pakistan's Punjab.
(With inputs from agencies)
