Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday expressed fear for his life during a court hearing after his arrest and said he was afraid that he will meet the same fate as Maqsood ‘Chaprasi’, a key witness in prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s money laundering case who died last year.
“I have not been to the washroom in 24 hours,” said Khan in the court, alleging “they give [you] an injection, and [you] slowly die.”
The 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief was remanded in custody for eight days by an anti-graft court as violent nationwide protests over his arrest erupted for a second day.
The cricketer turned politician requested the court that his personal physician Dr Faisal Sultan be granted access to him, news agency PTI reported citing Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper.
On Tuesday, Khan was arrested during a routine hearing in the capital Islamabad Tuesday and whisked away to an unknown location overnight before appearing behind closed doors in a specially convened court at police headquarters.
Afzal Marwat, Khan’s lawyer, earlier said the PTI chief was in “good spirits” but had complained of being hit on the back of the head and leg by paramilitary forces who arrested him, reported AFP.
Khan has previously denied all the charges in dozens of cases brought against him and said that the myriad legal cases are part of an effort by the struggling government and military establishment to prevent him from returning to power.
Khan, who was dismissed in April last year, has mounted an unprecedented attack against the nation’s powerful military throughout the months-long political crisis.
(With agency inputs)