Thursday 16 / January / 2025
MUSCAT: The arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan following a judgment of a country’s court on Saturday sentencing to three years in jail has had mixed reactions among the Pakistani expatriate community in the Sultanate of Oman.
Police arrested Imran Khan in Lahore after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, potentially barring the opposition leader from contesting an upcoming election.
Khan, 70, is a former cricket star who went on to forge a political career with his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, serving as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
He has denied wrongdoing and in a pre-recorded video address released by his party, he asked supporters to protest peacefully.
“By the time you hear this statement, they will have arrested me. I have only one appeal: don’t sit silently at home. I am struggling for you and the country and your children’s future,” he said.
In Oman, there were mixed reactions to his arrest.
Mohsin Sheikh, MD, Lake City Investments LLC, who is from Pakistan, said: “Imran Khan has won, he stood tall on his stance and faced the fabricated false charges against him and didn’t run away like Nawaz Sharif [former PM]. People of Pakistan have rejected these baseless cases and we still support him as the most popular political leader in Pakistan.”
Danyal Khan, a Muscat-based leading businessman from Pakistan, said: “They wanted to get him out politically as he has been such a successful and popular leader. The government has managed to do what we all expected. It is a black day for Pakistan as democracy has lost today.”
Pakistan’s Haroon Rasheed, who works as operation manager in Oman, said: “All these are politically affiliated accusations to halt him from running for the position of prime minister in the upcoming elections. The ruling government has calculated very well that by the time he would be released, his plans to run for elections will be disrupted.”
For Pakistani homemaker, Sarah I Khan, “Imran Khan is a true leader, he’s not been fighting for himself but fighting for us, for our future. We believe in democracy and we stand with our skipper, and strongly believe he will be back.”
Muscat-based Pakistan’s Qamar Riaz, CEO of Mountain Top Investment LLC, differed with the other countrymen. He said: “Imran Khan is only himself to be blamed. In the past, Imran Khan himself was involved in such actions, so he can only regret now.”
Habib Javed Saulat, a business development manager from Pakistan, said: “Pakistan’s history is replete with such decisions and they often come before the general elections. People of Pakistan strongly condemn the arrest of Imran Khan.”
Media reports said that Khan’s deputy and former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, would lead the party in Khan’s absence. “We have to struggle for his freedom - we have to fight legally and politically and move in a peaceful way in line with Imran Khan’s directives,” Qureshi said in a video address.
Meanwhile, the ruling government’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a broadcast statement that Khan’s arrest followed a full investigation and proper legal proceedings in a trial court. She said his arrest was unrelated to the upcoming elections.
A copy of the court verdict, shared by Khan’s legal team, said he had made false statements about acquiring official state gifts. “He has been found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from national exchequer wilfully and intentionally,” the verdict said.
“He cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from Toshakhana (the state gift repository) which later proved to be false and inaccurate.”
Khan was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than US$635,000. He has been charged in a string of cases since being ousted from the premiership in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022.
According to media reports from Pakistan, Khan’s lawyer, Intezar Panjotha, said: “We are filing a petition against the decision in the high court.”
Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said it had filed another appeal to the Supreme Court earlier on Saturday.
Police surrounded Khan’s residence in Lahore after the verdict was released on Saturday, Pakistani media reported, but there were no signs of unrest in the hours after his arrest, unlike last May.
Then, his arrest and detention for several days in a separate case sparked political turmoil and deadly clashes between his supporters and police.
Media reports also suggested that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has proposed that parliament be dissolved on August 9, three days before the end of its term, paving the way for a general election by November.
