Imran Khan defeated on path to second innings as Pakistan PM

Former international cricket star Imran Khan had vowed to captain the country a second time after being ousted as prime minister last year, but his conviction for graft Saturday has seen his chances stumped.

He was being taken into custody to begin a three year jail sentence less than an hour after an Islamabad judge declared him guilty, ahead of elections due by mid-November.

Khan had been expecting a conviction — he faces more than 200 legal cases which he argued were politically motivated and designed to prevent him from standing against the fragile coalition government.

The charismatic 70-year-old remains wildly popular — his first TikTok video last month garnered more than 135 million views in the first 36 hours — but the survival of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is unclear without him at the helm.

Most of his senior leadership are also locked away, or have abandoned the party following a major crackdown by the establishment which has vastly diminished his street power.

Since he was booted from power in April 2022 by a no-confidence vote, Khan has waged a risky and unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military he blamed for stiffing his party.

That anger spilled onto the streets in May after he was arrested and briefly detained in the same case, sparking three days of sometimes violent protests.

He is still recovering from a November assassination attempt which saw him shot in the leg — an attack he blamed on incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a senior army officer.

The political drama has played out against a backdrop of economic freefall and dramatically increasing militant attacks, ahead of general elections due no later than October.