Former PM, once military’s golden boy, has been sentenced in two separate cases to 10 and 14 years

The script seems eerily familiar. Imran Khan, once the golden boy of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, found himself at the receiving end of not one, but two, damning court verdicts this week.

Sentenced to 10 years in jail on Tuesday, and 14 years on Wednesday, the brazen timing of the convictions in two separate cases made one thing abundantly clear: the military will stop at nothing to keep Khan away from Pakistan’s general election, which will be held next week.

Former Pakistan PM condemned trial as ‘a joke’ amid crackdown on his political party in run-up to election

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking official secrets, amid a crackdown on his political party before the general election due next week.

The sentence is the harshest yet against Khan, who has been held in jail since August after he began to openly criticise the country’s military.

Former prime minister is barred from standing in elections after being jailed for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office

Pakistan’s election body has rejected former prime minister Imran Khan’s nomination to contest the 2024 national elections in two constituencies, officials and his party’s media team said on Saturday.

The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of political and legal battles since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022. He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for three years in August for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office from 2018 to 2022.

Return of Sharif, who has conviction for graft, is likely to have been smoothed by deal with country’s powerful military, expert says

Nawaz Sharif, the three-time prime minister of Pakistan, arrived back in the country on Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile, poised to make a political comeback before the general election in January.

Sharif spent the past few days in Dubai and left on a chartered flight packed with journalists, touching down in the capital, Islamabad, at about 1.30pm (0830 GMT), according to local media.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says parliament has lost its credibility as military continues to wield political power

A former Pakistani prime minister has said the country is in a “deepening political and economic crisis” as fears grow elections due to be held by November may be delayed further.

His comments came after a tumultuous period in which the prime minister, Imran Khan, was removed from office and arrested as an opposition coalition took power, the controversial 2018-23 parliament, which witnessed rights violations, a crackdown on political opponents and increasing curbs on dissent, was dissolved and the power and influence of the military grew.

Uncertainty over whether ex-PM will be released from jail due to other court orders allowing for his arrest

A Pakistani court has suspended the former prime minister Imran Khan’s recent conviction on corruption charges, his lawyer has said, though it is unclear whether this will lead to his release from jail.

The 70-year-old former cricketer has been at the centre of political turmoil in the crisis-ridden state since his ouster in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, and his relations with Pakistan’s powerful generals have deteriorated over the past year.

Reason for arrest of former foreign minister and leader of PTI is not immediately clear, party says

The Pakistani opposition leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was detained on Saturday, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said, just hours after he said it would challenge any delay to the country’s election in the courts.

Party spokesperson Zulfi Bukhari told Reuters the specific reason for the detention of Qureshi, twice Pakistan’s foreign minister, was not immediately clear. The caretaker information minister did not respond to a request for comment.

Exclusive: Shehbaz Sharif accuses jailed predecessor of ‘shabby treatment’ of political rivals in final interview as leader

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has denied pursuing a personal vendetta against Imran Khan, his political rival and immediate predecessor, who was jailed and barred from politics on corruption charges earlier this month.

Speaking to the Guardian in his last interview before handing over to a caretaker leader, Sharif said that “victimisation is not in [his] dictionary” and accused Khan of “shabby treatment of opposition leaders and putting them behind bars” when he was in power from 2018 to April last year.

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar to navigate economic and political turmoil after Imran Khan conviction

A little-known senator from Pakistan’s least populous province has been announced as caretaker prime minister to see the country through to the next election, the leader of the opposition said.

The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and opposition leader, Raja Riaz, agreed on Saturday to name senator Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar as caretaker premier.

Former prime minister appealing against conviction and three-year jail term for corruption in high court

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been barred from politics for five years by the country’s election commission after his conviction on corruption charges, local media reported.

Several local TV news channels said the election commission of Pakistan issued the notification on Tuesday in line with the guilty ruling.

Law minister claims new census needed for vote but supporters of Imran Khan, who is facing jail, believe his popularity is a factor

Concerns are mounting in Pakistan that a general election due later this year could be delayed after the government announced that the vote could take place only after a new census was completed and new constituency boundaries drawn.

The announcement from the nation’s law minister that it could take four months to complete the process came on the same day that the former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for “corrupt practices”, involving the sale of state gifts, and disqualified him from politics.

Khan arrested in Lahore after court ruling bans him from politics for five years for corruption

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been arrested after a court in Islamabad sentenced him to three years in jail and disqualified him from politics for “corrupt practices” involving the sale of state gifts.

Khan, 70, was picked up by police from his home in Lahore on Saturday after a court ruled on the Toshakhana case, in which he was accused of illegally selling gifts from heads of state worth hundreds of millions of rupees.

Allies desert former prime minister amid disappearances and torture as powerful military reasserts control

In recent days, Imran Khan has cut an increasingly isolated figure. Since Pakistan’s former prime minister was released from jail, after a brief but explosive attempt to arrest him last month, his return has been marked by a mass exodus of the top leadership of his party, on a scale that has surprised even his critics.

Late on Thursday night, Pervez Khattak, the former chief minister and defence minister, became the latest high-profile resignation from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. He followed in the path of Khan’s former finance minister, his former human rights minister, his former information minister and his former shipping minister, who all stepped down from senior posts or left PTI altogether in recent weeks. Dozens of other federal and state ministers have followed suit.

Former Pakistan prime minister says ‘fascist tactics’ employed by those in power

Imran Khan has alleged his party and followers are facing an unprecedented crackdown, as thousands have been swept up in arrests and hundreds face trial in military courts.

When violence erupted in Pakistan last week, after the arrest of the former prime minister on corruption charges, the government and the military vowed stringent action against all those who took part in the attacks on dozens of government buildings and military leaders’ homes and headquarters. At least nine people were killed in the violence and hundreds injured.

Since ex-PM was released from custody he has only left his residence once, citing fear of being re-arrested

Imran Khan and the police have been locked in a tense standoff in Lahore, with Pakistan’s former prime minister holed up in his residence claiming he was about to be arrested and officers barricading the surrounding roads and accusing him of harbouring “terrorists”.

Since Khan was released from police custody on Friday, after his arrest in a corruption case was declared illegal, he has repeatedly expressed his fear of being re-arrested and has only left his residence once, to attend court with his wife on Monday.

Exclusive: Former PM claims after release from custody that army chief has ‘personal grudge’ and is behind crackdown on party

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has escalated his criticism of the country’s powerful military, accusing the head of the army of harbouring a “personal grudge” against him and ordering his arrest and a crackdown on his party.

“It is personal. It’s got nothing to do with national interest,” Khan told the Guardian in an interview at his home in Lahore, after a dramatic week in which he was arrested at Islamabad’s high court by almost 100 paramilitary officers on Tuesday and held in police custody, in connection with a land corruption case.