Pak ex-PM Imran Khan booked in land scam case

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan was booked on Sunday in yet another case related to the purchase of over 5,000 kanals (625 acres) of land at throwaway prices through fraud in the country's Punjab province.

The total number of cases against the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief has now swelled to over 140 following his ouster as the prime minister of Pakistan in April last year.

Khan's cases mostly relate to terrorism, inciting the public to violence, arson attacks, blasphemy, attempted murder, corruption and fraud.

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The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Punjab registered the new case against Khan.

Khan's sister Uzma Khan, her husband and former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar have also been booked.

"Khan and other suspects are accused of buying 5,261 kanals of expensive land in Layyah district of Punjab at cheap rates. They bought the land at PKR 13 crores against the actual price of PKR 6 billion (600 crores)," the ACE said.

The ACE said the suspect, using political influence, "snatched" 500-kanal land from the local people who had been living there for many years.

According to ACE, a raid was conducted to arrest Uzma and her husband in Lahore's Zaman Park area on Sunday but they managed to flee.

It said the prime suspect in the case is Uzma as the land (over 5,000 acres) is in her name.

Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.