Pakistan charges Imran Khan party lawmakers with terrorism offences

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Several lawmakers and leaders of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's party arrested after a rally they held to demand his release have been charged with terrorism offences, according to police on Wednesday.

The lawmakers have been in police custody since being arrested after Sunday's rally turned violent, and will remain in custody until September 18 for investigation, said police officer Zafar Khan and a party official.

Former cricket star Khan, 71, has been in jail for over a year since his overthrow in 2022 after a falling-out with powerful military generals which has spawned the worst political turmoil in decades in the nation of 241 million people.

Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Khan's party leads a majority government is among those facing the charges, the police report of the offences seen by Reuters showed.

An Islamabad police spokesman said the charges included law and order violations and attacking law enforcement officials, which constitutes a terrorism offence. He did not give the number of those held in custody or elaborate further.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has said nearly a dozen of its parliamentarians have been picked up in Islamabad. Others had sought refuge in parliament to evade police, which entered the building to arrest some of them, the party said.

The party has announced countrywide protests for Friday against the crackdown.

Candidates backed by the PTI won the most seats in a general election in February but fell short of the majority required to form a government. Khan's rivals cobbled together a coalition instead to set up a bloc under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

PTI says the elections were manipulated to keep Khan out of power - a charge the Pakistan Election Commission denies.

(Reporting by Asif ShahzadEditing by Tomasz Janowski, Alexandra Hudson)