Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was banned Friday from running for any election for five years by the Election Commission, for not having declared all the diplomatic gifts received during his mandate.
The Commission concluded that the former head of government “was involved in corrupt practices”, one of Mr. Khan’s lawyers, Gohar Khan, told AFP, announcing his intention to immediately take legal action to make reverse this decision.
If this is confirmed by the courts, Mr Khan, who was overthrown in April by a motion of no confidence in the National Assembly, may not be able to contest the next legislative elections which are due to take place by October 2023.
Dozens of his supporters attacked vehicles as they left Commission premises after the ruling, and police arrested a bodyguard of Mr Khan for firing a bullet into the ground.
“We reject this shameful decision. The PTI and the whole nation reject this decision”, reacted Fawad Chaudhry, former Minister of Information and senior official of Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Movement for Justice), prompting all his supporters to take to the streets without delay to show their disapproval.
A call immediately heard: PTI activists blocked roads in Lahore, and in Faisalabad, in the east of the country, they set fire to tires to stop traffic.
Islamabad police said on Twitter that they are on “high” alert in the capital.
Popular support
The Pakistani press has been chaining sensational headlines for several months, accusing the former cricket champion and his wife of having received the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars in gifts, in the form of luxury watches, jewelry, bags handbags of designers or perfumes, while traveling abroad.
Mr. Khan is accused of not having declared all the goods received under his mandate and of having made money by reselling some of them.
In Pakistan, government officials must declare all gifts received, but are allowed to keep the less expensive ones.
They can also acquire some of the more expensive gifts for around 50% of their value. This proportion was only 20% before being increased by Mr. Khan.
The complaint on which the Electoral Commission ruled on Friday was filed when Mr. Khan was still in power, by the then opposition.
At the time, Mr. Khan explained that he had not declared certain goods for national security reasons, but in a written response also admitted to having purchased nearly 22 million rupees (136,000 Canadian dollars) worth of gifts and then reselling them for more than double that amount.
Despite his ouster, Mr. Khan retains broad support among the population. Since April, he has held large rallies across the country — drawing tens of thousands of supporters — to pressure the fragile ruling coalition. He had also promised to soon announce the date of a new “long march” on Islamabad.
The former cricket champion, who keeps rehashing his thesis that his fall was the result of a “conspiracy” hatched by the United States, relentlessly criticizes the government of his successor, Shehbaz Sharif, and demands early elections.
“Political tension”
He has faced several legal proceedings in recent months, from which he had so far emerged without too much damage, the current government seeking at all costs to exclude him from the next elections.
The country is used to seeing political leaders use the police and the judiciary to muzzle the opposition.
Imran Khan came to power in 2018, after the victory in the legislative elections of the PTI, on a populist platform combining promises of social reforms, religious conservatism and the fight against corruption.
But under his tenure, the economic situation deteriorated and he lost the support of the army which had been accused of helping to get him elected.
The announcement of the Electoral Commission was welcomed with great satisfaction by the power in place.
“Whoever was spreading lies about the supposed corruption of his political adversaries has been caught red-handed,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari tweeted.
For analyst Hassan Askari Rizvi, this decision will mainly result in increasing “political tension” in the country.