The gifts included watches given by a royal family, according to government officials, who have alleged previously that Khan’s aides sold them in Dubai.

Islamabad: Former Pakistan Prime Minister was arrested in Lahore on Saturday after a trial court sentenced him to three years in prison in Toshakhana case, news agency Reuters reported. The sentence relates to a probe conducted by the election commission, which found the ex-premier guilty of illegally selling state gifts worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000) during his tenure from 2018 to 2022. This ruling will consequently lead to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief’s disqualification from politics for the next five years.

Khan was accused of opting to corrupt practices to not only acquire gifts, jewellery and other items worth billions of rupees, but also using his office to tailor the procedures, get under-valued assessments done and later pay 20 per cent of their under-valued price through undeclared accounts.

The Islamabad trial court declared PTI chief as guilty of corrupt practices and concealing details of Toshakhana gifts.  “Imran Khan deliberately submitted fake details to the Election Commission of Pakistan and is found guilty of corrupt practices,” the trial court verdict said. Additional Judge Humayun Dilawar of the Islamabad-based district and sessions judge also imposed Rs 100,000 fine on Khan, adding that he would be kept in jail for another six months if failed to pay the fine.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his residence in Lahore by Islamabad police in coordination with the Punjab police after the court verdict, his family said. In a brief post on the X platform, his party said: “Imran Khan is being moved to Kot Lakhpat Jail.”

The former Prime Minister was indicted in the case on May 10 on a criminal complaint file against him by the ECP, which was then challenged by Khan. However,  Khan and his lawyers had been trying their best to ignore and stay away from the proceedings and investigations of the Toshakhana case, which many believe was because he was aware that he would fail to defend himself.

The PTI legal team maintains that they will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, claiming that the hasty decision of the session judge in the case raises serious concerns on the intent of the judge himself, who they said has been biased and against Khan.

What is the Toshakhana case?

The Toshakhana controversy came to the forefront in August 2022, when the coalition government — led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — filed a case against Imran, claiming that he did not disclose information on gifts presented to Toshakhana as well as the proceeds from the “illegal” sale of some the gifts.

Established in 1974, Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division which stores gifts and other expensive items received by public officials. According to its rules, it’s compulsory for officials to report the gifts and other such materials received by them to the Cabinet Division.

However, when Imran came to power in 2018, he resisted disclosing details of the many presents he received during his time in office, saying that doing so would severely impact relations with other countries.

Subsequently, the former prime minister wrote a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and admitted to selling at least four such presents but also said that he bought them from the government by paying a percentage of their value. These included a Graff watch gifted to him by the Saudi Arabian crown prince, Rolex watches, expensive cufflinks, a valuable pen and a ring, according to a report in The Indian Express.

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