President Arif Alvi expresses solidarity with Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Following Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest, President Arif Alvi expressed solidarity with the former prime minister and asked his wife to reach out to the arrested leader’s sisters Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, reported The News.

The president asked his wife Samina Alvi to contact Imran Khan's sisters and convey that he is making efforts for his well-being.

Sources told the publication that the president shared his sentiments with his spouse and asked her to contact Imran’s sisters.

Accordingly, the first lady established contact with the PTI chairman’s two sisters by phone.

Samina, in a statement, said that when she reached out to Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan they informed her that there was no case of plundering of national wealth against their brother.

Both the sisters were upset over the arrest of their brother and impressed upon the people to continue peaceful protest as long as the PTI chief is not released.

Meanwhile, sources said that President Alvi is maintaining his contact with the PTI leadership to ascertain the situation and have a discussion with them on political developments.

The spokesman for the Presidency wasn’t available for comments.

The report regarding the president comes a day after the PTI chief was sent on an eight-day physical remand by an accountability court in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

The PTI chief was presented before the court after he was arrested on Tuesday by Rangers — becoming the seventh former prime minister to be arrested in Pakistan — on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an autonomous anti-graft agency, concerning a corruption case. He was then moved to its office in the garrison town of Rawalpindi for questioning.

Later, announcing the reserved verdict on Khan’s arrest, the Islamabad High Court said that the arrest was legal; therefore, Khan’s legal team challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court; however, the plea was turned down by the apex court citing various reasons.

The cricketer-turned-politician faces a slew of court cases and was also indicted in the Toshakhana case — which involved allegations that he did not properly disclose earnings from the sale of state gifts from his time in office.