Pakistan: Police fail in bid to arrest ex-PM Imran Khan

Police in Pakistan turned up at former Prime Minister Imran Khan's home in Lahore on Sunday armed with an arrest warrant, only to find that the former leader was apparently not available, officials said.

"A team of Islamabad police has arrived in Lahore to arrest Imran Khan to comply with the court orders," police said in a tweet.

"Imran Khan is reluctant to surrender — the superintendent of police had gone into the room but Imran Khan was not present there," the tweet added.

The English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn said Khan was addressing his party workers at the residence as the police arrived.

The vice chairman of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, denied that there was any arrest warrant.

"We have received the notice from Islamabad police — the notice does not contain any order for the arrest," he told reporters.

"We will consult our lawyers and follow the legal process," he added.

Why is Imran Khan wanted by police?

Khan, who was forced out of office in a no-confidence vote last year, is the subject of an arrest warrant for having failed to appear before a court on February 28 on corruption charges.

The former prime minister is accused of failing to declare gifts received during his time in office or the profit made from selling them.

Under Pakistani law, government officials must declare all gifts but are allowed to keep those below a certain value.

Since leaving office, Khan has attempted to disrupt politics in Pakistan, holding protests, pulling out of parliament and dissolving the two provincial assemblies his party controlled in a bid to force the government to hold early polls.

In November, he was shot and slightly wounded in an attack on his convoy.

Pakistan is currently in a dire economic situation, with high inflation and few foreign exchange reserves.

tj/fb (AFP, EFE)