Former Prime Minister Imran Khan said he will not join the corruption probe World news

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is facing corruption charges, said on Wednesday that he would not join an investigation by the powerful anti-graft agency while on bail.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has previously investigated, prosecuted and jailed all those who have served as prime minister since 2008, has already summoned Khan for investigation into graft allegations, a spokesman said. tell.

Khan was arrested on the charges, which he denied, on May 9 and was later released on bail that was extended to May 31.

In a statement addressed to the NAB deputy director, and revealed to Reuters by one of Khan’s lawyers, the former prime minister called the allegations “absolutely false, frivolous and concocted”.

He said he is applying for, and receiving bail in other legal matters and that he will not come until his security bail expires on the twenty-second day of May.

Khan’s arrest triggered a wave of violence that deepened political inequality in the South Asian nation of 220 million. Pakistan is also facing its worst economic crisis ever, with critical IMF funding needed to avert a balance of payments crisis delayed for months.

His wife Bushra Khan, known as Bushra Bibi, is still on bail till May 23.

On Wednesday, Khan said police had surrounded his home in Lahore, in the Punjab province, and he expected to be arrested again soon, after the government warned him to hand over supporters he blamed for the army attack.

Punjab’s information minister Amir Mir said the government had no plans to arrest Khan as the court had granted his bail. “All we want is to put the terrorists hiding in your house,” he said.

Khan has said authorities can search his home but only with legal documents from a court, and has refused to protect anyone involved in the violence.

On Thursday, Khan’s aide Iftikhr Durrani allowed journalists to some areas of Khan’s Lahore home to “look for terrorists”.