Imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party on Sunday accused authorities of denying his legal team access to the leader to get his signatures on essential documents for court purposes.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of “corrupt practices” in the Toshakhana graft case and sentenced him to three-year imprisonment.

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is lodged in the Attock jail after being sentenced for concealing the sale of state gifts. The case was adjudicated by a sessions court in Islamabad.

The PTI in a statement shared on a WhatsApp group termed Khan’s arrest as an “abduction”.

“Chairman’s legal team is not being given access to him for getting legal documents signed, as per the prerequisite, despite appeals made to Superintendent Attock Prison & Additional Home Secretary Punjab,” it said.

“This doesn’t sound like an arrest at all, it sounds like an abduction.”

After his arrest, Khan was taken by road to Attock City, the last major town of Punjab on the boundary with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Initially, it was expected that he would be kept in the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, but, for security reasons, he was taken to Attock.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is leading the PTI in the absence of Khan, in a video message urged workers to take to the streets but remain peaceful.

“Peaceful protest is our right but no state asset is to be damaged. Don’t take the law in your hands,” he cautioned.

A similar message was given by Khan in a pre-recorded clip which was run by the party on social media platforms, but the supporters’ response was not electric.

However, his arrest failed to bring crowds of supporters on the streets, a stark contrast with his arrest on May 9 when thousands of them came out to protest against the detention.

The major reason for the lukewarm response is that the party has considerably shrivelled after the May 9 violence that saw organised attacks on military installations and other state properties.

Several top leaders left or were forced to quit the party when arrested after the protest.

Qureshi chaired an emergency meeting of the core committee of the PTI to chalk out a strategy to tackle the conviction of Khan.

The meeting deliberated on the court verdict in the Toshakhana case and the arrest of Khan and devise a strategy for his release.

Rejecting the conviction of the former premier, it declared the arrest was a result of a biased and flawed judicial decision and called for a nationwide peaceful protest.

The committee also appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan for a swift hearing of the party’s review petition.

“Our appeal should be fixed for a hearing on a priority basis without considering holidays and other routines,” it demanded.

The meeting noted that the whole nation has rejected “the wrong decision of a biased judge” and claimed that “the whole facade of implicating Imran was a pre-arranged plan”.