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The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has in the past
investigated, put on trial and jailed all those who have served
as prime minister since 2008, had earlier summoned Khan for
investigation into the graft charges, a spokesman said.
Khan was arrested on the charges, which he denies, on May 9 and
later set free on court-ordered bail that was extended to May
31.
In a statement addressed to the NAB's deputy director, and shown
to Reuters by one of Khan's lawyers, the former prime minister
called the allegations against him "absolutely false, frivolous
and concocted".
He said he was in the process of applying for, and obtaining,
bail in a number of other legal cases and would not be available
before his protective bail expired on May 22.
Khan's arrest triggered a wave of violence that deepened
political instability in the South Asian nation of 220 million.
Pakistan has also been facing its worst ever economic crisis,
with critical IMF funding needed to avert a balance of payment
crisis delayed for months.
His wife Bushra Khan, commonly known as Bushra Bibi, is also on
bail until May 23.
On Wednesday, Khan said that police had surrounded his house in
Lahore, in Punjab province, and that he expected to be
re-arrested soon, after the government warned him to hand over
supporters who it blamed for attacks on the army.
Punjab's information minister Amir Mir said the government did
not have any plans to arrest Khan as he had been given bail by
court. "All we want him to hand over the terrorists hiding at
his home," he said.
Khan has said authorities could search his home but only with
legal warrants from a court, and has denied sheltering anyone
involved in the violence.
On Thursday, Khan's aide Iftikhr Durrani allowed journalists
into some areas of Khan's Lahore home to "look for terrorists".
(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Miral Fahmy;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)
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