The notification was sent out right after PTI employees and police officers got into a fight when the cops moved to Khan’s home in Lahore to apprehend him in the Toshakhana case.

A little over a week after the early attempt to detain former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan in connection with the Toshakhana case, police showed up at his Lahore home during the daytime on Tuesday, March 14 and took him into custody.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), told reporters that Imran, who is 70 years old, had not been home. Even if he is “sent off to prison or shot down,” Imran wants his campaigners to keep fighting the government, he said in a televised speech released shortly thereafter.

According to findings, the police arrived at his home in armoured personnel carriers and were encountered with mass protests planned in advance by PTI workers, who reportedly barraged them with rocks. According to the reports, the protesters were dispersed by the use of tear gas as well as water cannons.

This happened shortly after Imran’s arrest warrant for failing to make an appearance in the Toshakhana case had been reinstated by a court of session in Islamabad. The court order had first been provided on February 28, when he failed to make an initial court appearance for his accusation. This marked the third time that Imran’s accusation in the case was unattended.

And in the meantime, on Monday, a separate court granted a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him relating to a case pertaining to intimidating a woman additional district and sessions judge. But it subsequently postponed the warrant only until March 16.

The case of Toshakhana

In August 2022, the coalition government headed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opened an investigation against Imran, saying that he did not inform them about gifts given to the Toshakhana and the money made from the “unauthorised” sale of certain of those gifts. This brought the Toshakhana scandal to the top of the agenda.

Toshakhana is a unit that has been around since 1974. It is run by the Cabinet Division and stores rewards as well as other luxury things that government servants get. In accordance with its rules, officials must tell the Cabinet Division about all gifts and certain other similar items they receive.

Though Imran took office in 2018, he has so far refrained from discussing the numerous gifts he has received since taking office, claiming that revealing them would have a devastating effect on the relationship with other nations.

Later, in a statement to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the ex-prime minister acknowledged the sale of at least four such gifts but claimed to have purchased them from the government for a fraction of their original cost.

As Pakistan’s supreme leader, Imran ended up receiving as many as 101 gifts, according to a database of all gifts noted in Toshakhana since 2002 that the administration released by the government on Sunday. “Of all this, he has managed to retain presents worth at least PKR 100 million, spending only PKR 20 million to the Toshkana, as per registers.”

What followed Imran’s disqualification?

Just after ECP’s course of action, PTI employees led nationwide protests outside the poll body’s office spaces. Protesters argued with law enforcement and vandalised property.

After the ECP ousted the prime minister in the Toshakhana case, Imran was arrested on terrorist charges for encouraging protests.