Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s three-year prison sentence for bribery sparked scattered protests across the country, but there was no hint of a huge uprising on Sunday, despite his call for followers to protest.
His incarceration has heightened fears of violence ahead of an election later this year, in which he is now ineligible to run, and has called into question the validity of any vote that excludes him.
His lawyers claimed on Sunday that they were being refused access to him for talks in order to file urgent legal challenges to his conviction.
They also expressed concern about his imprisonment at Attock Jail, which was erected 100 years ago on the outskirts of historical Attock city, around 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Islamabad.
“He is a 70-year-old man and a former elected prime minister so legally he should be given a better class (of conditions) inside the jail,” said Gohar Khan, a member of his legal team.
Officials from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party reported approximately 50 supporters were detained overnight as police moved quickly to quell protests following Khan’s arrest and transport to jail.
A judge judged Khan guilty of graft in regard to gifts he received while prime minister and sentenced him to three years in prison at a court hearing he did not attend on Saturday.
