World (AP)

Pakistan police raid former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party office and arrest its spokesman

Pakistan police raid former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party office and arrest its spokesman

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s police raided the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party office in Islamabad on Monday and arrested its spokesman for carrying out anti-state propaganda, the Interior Ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said officers also arrested Ahmad Janjua, a media coordinator for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI party. Janjua was arrested over the weekend in a separate raid.

The arrests have drawn criticism from Gohar Ali Khan, the chairman of PTI, who said authorities also arrested some other workers of the party’s media wing, in a series of police raids in recent weeks.

Pakistani authorities often accuse the PTI of running a campaign against the country’s institutions, a reference to the military, a charge the party denies.

Khan has been embroiled in more than 150 cases since 2022 when he was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in the parliament.

He has been held at a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since last year after his arrest.