Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain and Prime Minister, has been arrested in Islamabad, reports leading cricket website ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday.

The former PM was scheduled to appear at the Islamabad High Court to apply for bail in a number of cases that had required his presence, though local media reported that he has not been arrested for a charge for which he was appearing in court on Tuesday.

The arrest warrant, seen by ESPNcricinfo states that Imran has been "accused of commission of the offense of corruption and corrupt practices" under a section of the National Accountability Ordinance.

At approximately 2:15pm local time, Imran was arrested by, according to local media, the Pakistan Rangers, a paramilitary federal law enforcement corps in Pakistan. 

He was handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further investigation. Section 144, a colonial-era law that prohibits large gatherings, has also been imposed in Pakistan's capital.

Islamabad Police released a statement from their Inspector General on Twitter saying Imran had been arrested in the Al Qadir University, an institution he founded as prime minister in 2019 and where he remains chairman. The allegations centre around the alleged involvement of the former prime minister and his wife in the university being donated the land it stands on by the influential Pakistani businessman and real estate giant Malik Riaz. The UK's National Crime Agency seized assets worth £190m from Riaz in December 2019 and returned them to Pakistan and it is alleged links between the land allotted for the university and what the Pakistan government did with those funds that is unclear but has been the subject of a government investigative committee.