Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan charged with contempt of electoral watchdog

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was charged on Wednesday with contempt of the electoral commission, his lawyer Naeem said, a move related to allegations he made derogatory remarks about the chief election commissioner.

Former PM's lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, said Imran Khan was indicted at Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi. He said during the court hearing, Imran Khan pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him. One of Imran Khan's former deputies, Fawad Chaudhry, was also indicted on the same charges.

The indictment is another blow for Imran Khan, who is serving time on a corruption conviction and has multiple other legal cases hanging over him.

It also comes days after election officials rejected Khan’s nomination papers, blocking his attempt to contest parliamentary polls on Feb.8.

Imran Khan is accused of calling the head of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Sikandar Sultan Rajaa, and other officials "personal servants” of former prime minister Shshbaz Sharif.

Shahbaz replaced Khan in April 2022 after he was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in Parliament by his political opponents. Since then, government agencies have pursued him in the courts.

"The Election Commission indicted Imran Khan in the absence of lawyers," Imran Khan's lawyer Haider Panjutha wrote on social media platform X.

The ECP initiated contempt proceedings against Imran Khan and other former leaders of his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, saying Imran Khan and his colleagues had made "derogatory and contemptuous remarks against the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan and used intemperate and insulting language."

Imran Khan, who is widely seen as the country's most popular leader, denies all charges against him and says he is being by hounded by the powerful military, which wants to keep him out of the polls due next month. The military denies this.

Last week, a high court refused to suspend Imran Khan's disqualification from contesting the elections.

Separately, a Pakistan court on Wednesday ruled that Imran Khan's party will not be allowed to use its traditional election symbol of a cricket bat in the February elections, Panjutha said.

The electoral body last month declared that PTI intra-party elections in December were void. The party had needed to hold those elections in order to retain the symbol. The PTI challenged that decision in court and got a stay order before Wednesday's decision to continue with the ECP's earlier decision.

Imran Khan's party plans on challenging the decision at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said on Wednesday, adding the party will not boycott elections.