Pakistani authorities freed hunger-striking cricket legend Imran Khan from prison, where he has been detained for the last week under anti-terrorism laws.
MULTAN: Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan was freed from jail on Wednesday in the latest chapter of a storied career that has taken him from sporting hero to fledgling pro-democracy icon.
From his hunger strike in detention to the campaign led by his glamorous British ex-wife for his release, the headlines spawned by Khan's jail drama have often overshadowed the political crisis in his country.
Khan's stance against the state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf has also enhanced his political reputation after years of languishing as the sole MP of his tiny opposition party.
"We have released Imran Khan on the instructions of the provincial government," Sheikh Inamur Rehman, superintendent of Dera Ghazi Khan prison in central Punjab province, told.
"I personally saw him off at the prison gate," he said.
An aide to law minister Afzal Haider said that most of nearly 6,000 people arrested under emergency rule had now been released and the rest were expected to be freed within days.
Khan was detained last week and charged under anti-terrorism laws after he tried to lead a student protest in Lahore against a state of emergency imposed by Musharraf.
He had spent the week before that in hiding, after escaping from a house arrest order imposed when Musharraf declared the emergency on November 3.
The Oxford-educated Khan later told Newsweek magazine that he had avoided police on that day by jumping over a wall behind his house.
In jail, he began a hunger strike on Monday to protest against a massive government crackdown on the opposition and his detention.
Khan's younger sister Allema told earlier on Wednesday that he had stopped drinking water and that he was increasingly weak on the third day of his hunger strike.
"Imran is not taking any liquid and he is not eating. He has grown weak but his spirits are very high," she said by telephone after visiting him in jail.
"He has refused to take water despite instruction from the jail doctor and this is extremely worrisome," she added.
"But he chided us for showing weakness and he said we should urge the youth of Pakistan to go on a token hunger strike to press for the restoration of the judiciary."
Khan's plight won international attention partly thanks to his status as a legendary cricketing all-rounder, but also because of the efforts of his former wife, the British socialite and heiress Jemima Khan.
She led protests outside the Pakistani high commission calling for his release, while their younger son, eight, held a picture of his father with the words "Release Imran. Release my Aba (father)."
"I'm doing this because Imran and my friends in Pakistan have asked us to make noise here because they are not able to in Pakistan," the 33 year-old said at a demonstration on Sunday. The couple were married for almost a decade.
During that time Khan, a former playboy who captained Pakistan's cricket team to World Cup glory in 1992, became an increasingly devout Muslim and set up his Movement for Justice opposition party.
But he was battered by Pakistan's bloody political arena and had until now failed to turn fans from his cricketing days into political supporters, with his party winning just one seat -- his own -- in elections in 2002.
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