Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday after the embattled former Pakistan prime minister was found guilty in a high-profile corruption trial and sentenced to three years in prison, a verdict that disqualified him for five years from holding any public office.

Additional Judge Humayun Dilawar of the Islamabad-based district and sessions court found Khan, 70, guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

The unexpected developments came as Pakistan is heading for general elections later this year, with the current National Assembly set to complete its term on August 12.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 on Khan, adding that the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party would be kept in jail for another six months if failed to pay the fine.

Imran Khan has been “found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he acquired from the national Exchequer willfully and intentionally. He cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from the Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate. His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” the order said.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries.

The court convicted the cricketer-turned-politician under Section 174 of the Election Act 2017 and sentenced him to three years of simple imprisonment.

Saturday’s verdict centred on charges that Khan incorrectly declared details of presents from foreign dignitaries and proceeds from their alleged sale.

According to reports, Khan received 58 gifts worth more than Rs 140 million from world leaders during his three-and-a-half-year stint and retained all of them either by paying a negligible amount or even without any payment.

The gift Khan kept with himself included a diamond watch, a pair of cufflinks, a ring, a pen and several watches.

“His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” judge Dilawar wrote in his ruling.

PTI spokesman Zulfi Bokhari informed journalists that Khan was disqualified for five years from holding any public office under the Constitution.

Bokhari pointed out that a caretaker government is about to assume charge soon and that Khan had predicted his arrest in some politically motivated case.

He said the current government was attempting “some way or the other to eliminate him from the political landscape of Pakistan.”

“That has now finally happened. They’ve convicted him. He’s not allowed to contest him to be a part of politics for five years. He’s going to jail for three years, which naturally will be contested,” the PTI spokesman added.

Khan was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore by the Islamabad police in coordination with the Punjab police after the court verdict, his family said.

A police team headed by Senior Superintendent of Police, Crime Investigation Agency, Malik Liaquat took Khan into custody. A picture of him sitting in a car with Khan also went viral on social media.

Khan was taken by road from Lahore to Attock Jail in the Attock city, PTI spokesperson Zulifi Bokhari said.

Police said that he was taken to jail in tight security. “Security has been on high alert on the route leading to jail,” police said.

It is the same jail where former premier Nawaz Sharif was kept after his arrest following toppling of his government by General Pervez Musharraf.

After Saturday’s verdict, Imran technically stands disqualified from holding any public office for five years under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution.

The law states: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Parliament if he has been, on conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.”

He, however, has the right to appeal the verdict.

Khan’s legal team said they would be filing an immediate appeal.

In a pre-recorded message shared on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, a few hours after arrest, Imran said: “By the time this message reaches you, I will be in jail.”

Khan said: “I want you to continue peaceful protests and not to sit quietly inside your houses.”

“My movement is not for myself, but for you, for the future of your children,” he stressed, recalling that Pakistan too was founded on the concept of freedom.

“If you will not stand up for your rights, you will live a life that is of slaves and slaves have no life. Slaves are similar to how ants are on the ground they do not fly high.

“This is a battle for your rights and freedom you have to continue peaceful protests until you get your right, which is seeing a government elected by you and not a qabza (encroachment) mafia,” Imran Khan added.

Addressing a press conference, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb defended Khan’s arrest and said the PTI chief refused to respond to the charges against him.

“There was no political motive of the government involved behind his arrest,” she said, adding that Khan’s arrest did not have anything to do with the upcoming general elections.

This is for the second time in three months that Khan has been arrested.

Unlike previous instances, Khan was detained on Saturday without any major resistance.

He was arrested on May 9 in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, sparking violent protests by his supporters.

Khan has been slapped with more than 150 legal cases, including several on charges of corruption, terrorism and inciting people to violence over deadly protests.

Khan was indicted in the Toshakhana case in May which was filed last year on the complaint of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which had disqualified him in the same case in October 2022.

The verdict came a day after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) set aside a session court’s verdict to uphold the maintainability of the Toshakhana case for criminal proceedings against Khan.

Born to a Pashtun family in Lahore, Imran Khan graduated from Keble College, Oxford. He began his international cricket career in a 1971 Test series against England.

Khan played until 1992 and served as the team’s captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992. Under his captaincy, Pakistan won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, the country’s only victory in the competition.

From 1995 to 2004, Khan was married to Jemima Goldsmith, a British socialite turned writer and activist. They have two sons. The marriage ended amicably in divorce in 2004.

In 2015, Khan announced his second marriage to the British Pakistani journalist Reham Khan. The marriage lasted nine months and ended in divorce in 2015.

In 2018, he married Bushra Bibi, who was previously his spiritual mentor.