Former Pakistani High Minister Imran Khan was once arrested at his house in Lahore on Saturday after a court docket discovered him responsible of corruption and sentenced him to 3 years in prison.

The previous world cricket big name had lengthy warned he could be arrested to stop him from taking part in elections because of be held sooner than the top of the yr.

Any individual convicted of a legal offence is generally disqualified from contesting elections or retaining place of business in Pakistan.

Khan, 70, has confronted a slew of court docket instances for fees he has mentioned are politically motivated since being got rid of from energy in a vote of no self belief remaining yr, and he was once no longer provide when he was once sentenced on Saturday.

In Might, he was once arrested and in short detained in Islamabad for a similar case, sparking fatal unrest all over which supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) birthday celebration poured onto the streets and clashed with police.

Within the aftermath of his unencumber following 3 days in custody, PTI was once centered through a crackdown with hundreds of arrests, studies of intimidation and muzzling of the media.

Photographs of Khan, and even mentions of him through title, are prohibited from being broadcast on TV channels, however he stays wildly fashionable, and remaining month a debut video to his private TikTok account racked up greater than 135 million perspectives and four.5 million likes inside 36 hours.

After he was once taken away through police on Saturday, a video observation Khan made sooner than his arrest was once posted to his X, previously Twitter, account, with him calling for his supporters to protest.

“My fellow Pakistanis, they are going to have arrested me and I’ll be in prison by the point this message reaches you. I’ve only one request and attraction, that you’re not to take a seat silently at house,” he mentioned.

“This can be a warfare for justice, in your rights, in your freedom … chains don’t simply fall off, they should be damaged. You should proceed non violent protest till you get your rights.”

Khan’s jailing will do little to calm the industrial and political unrest that has roiled the country for the previous 18 months.