![\"Imran](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-03\/ia818iug_imran-khan-afp_625x300_19_March_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"Imran")
<\/div>\nImran Khan heads the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party. (File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s lawyers have alleged a plot to kill him in the prison after his arrest in a corruption case triggered massive protests across the country. He was tortured and his meals were laced with insulin to give him a heart attack, his lawyers claimed.<\/p>\n
The cricketer-turned-politician, who heads the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, alleged he was given an injection to induce a slow heart attack and not allowed to use the washroom. He also complained of chest pains, his lawyers said after meeting him for over an hour.<\/p>\n
Mr Khan’s Tuesday arrest has been termed “illegal” by the Pakistan Supreme Court, which has ordered his immediate release. Today he will appear before the Islamabad High Court to seek a pre-arrest bail and even address his supporters outside the court.<\/p>\n
He is in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).<\/p>\n
“This is an attempt to kill him. He said he was not being allowed to sleep. He was kept in a dirty room without a toilet or bed. He was not given anything to eat since he was brought to police lines at 3 am,” his lawyers told the media, according to news agency ANI.<\/p>\n
Mr Khan, a former cricketing star who remains popular in Pakistan, urged people to keep fighting to restore the rule of law, they said.<\/p>\n
The murder plot charges come over a month after Pakistan minister Rana Sanaullah had said “either Imran Khan or us will get murdered.” Mr Khan also survived a gun attack at a rally last November.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court yesterday criticised Mr Khan’s arrest from the court where he had come to appear in a case, stating that a person cannot be arrested from the court premises without the permission of the registrar.<\/p>\n
Mr Khan’s arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case follows months of political crisis in Pakistan and hours after Pakistan’s powerful military rebuked him for alleging a murder plot by a senior officer.<\/p>\n
His supporters responded with protests and set the house of a corps commander on fire in Lahore. They also laid siege to the army’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi.<\/p>\n
Several politicians have been jailed in the past in Pakistan that has faced at least three coups by the military.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n