Imran Khan will not be able to contest elections for five years, former PM challenged the sentence of three years in the High Court
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Jailed former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan Challenging a trial court’s verdict convicting him in the Toshakhana corruption case, he said on Tuesday that the verdict by a biased judge was a slap in the face of due process and fair trial and a gross travesty of justice. Khan, through his lawyers Khwaja Haris and Gowhar Ali Khan, filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his conviction and three-year prison sentence. Here, Pakistan’s top election body has disqualified former Prime Minister Khan for five years after being convicted in a corruption case.
Imran Khan is lodged in Attock Jail after being sentenced to three years
Khan (70) was arrested on Saturday soon after an Islamabad court convicted him of corruption in the Toshakhana corruption case. The court sentenced Khan to three years in jail. He is currently stuck in jail.
Khan’s petition said, the decision is biased
Khan’s counsel said that the trial court’s decision was based on prejudice rather than on merits of the case, as the counsel for the petitioner was not given the right to present arguments. Khan’s petition states that the judgment passed by the lower court judge is biased as well as prejudiced and is invalid and liable to be set aside in the eyes of law. It has been said in the petition that the decision of the lower court is a slap on the face of due (legal) process and fair trial and a blatant travesty of justice. It states that the petitioner’s counsel was fully prepared to present arguments after explaining the reason for delay in reaching the court, yet the order was pronounced.
The petition named the District Election Commissioner of Islamabad as a respondent in the case
The petition alleges that the judgment delivered at the end of the hearing was prepared and written in advance and therefore the 35-page judgment was issued within 30 minutes of the pronouncement of the judgment by way of summary order. The petition has named the District Election Commissioner of Islamabad as a respondent in the case. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf announced on a WhatsApp group of foreign media journalists that the court has accepted the petition and listed it for hearing on Wednesday. In addition, the IHC allowed Khan’s lawyers to visit him in jail during the hearing of the party’s plea seeking ‘A-class’ facilities for the former prime minister. Later, the court asked Khan’s party to provide the names of two lawyers who would meet him in jail.
what is the matter
The Toshakhana is a store where gifts handed over to government officials by foreign officials are kept during the tenure of the Prime Minister of the country. Khan is alleged to have deliberately withheld the details of the gifts kept by him from the Toshakhana and the money received from their alleged sale while serving as Prime Minister. Khan is facing around 140 cases across the country, in which he has been accused of terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder.
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