Former cricket captain and recent Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been sensationally released from jail after the country’s Supreme Court ruled his arrest earlier this week was illegal.
Mr Khan was dramatically arrested on Tuesday in Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad on corruption charges. Footage showed paramilitary forces seizing Mr Khan as he was in court for another matter.
Mr Khan served as prime minister between 2018 and 2022. He initially had the backing of the country’s powerful military but he is now one of its most vocal critics.
His arrest followed months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.
Mr Khan’s PTI party has claimed his arrest is part of a plot to prevent him from running for high office again.
Since his arrest more than 2000 protesters have been arrested and 10 people have died in clashes.
Mr Khan appeared at the Supreme Court on Thursday after his lawyers challenged the legality of his earlier arrest.
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial ordered his immediate release.
“Your arrest was invalid so the whole process needs to be backtracked,” he told Mr Khan, reported the BBC.
