Pakistan: Imran Khan’s appeal against Toshakhana conviction to be heard on August 22

Imran Khan was sentenced to three years in jail by a sessions court on August 5 for hiding proceeds from the sale of state gifts (Toshakhana)

Islamabad: A two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court will hear an appeal by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan against his conviction and sentence in the Toshakhana corruption case on August 22, it emerged on Wednesday.

Khan, 70, was sentenced to three years in jail by a sessions court on August 5 for hiding proceeds from the sale of state gifts (Toshakhana). He is currently incarcerated in Attock Jail in Punjab province.

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A division bench, comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, will take up the hearing next Tuesday (August 22).

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he acquired from the national exchequer “willfully and intentionally.” “His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” the trial order said on August 5.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries.

The former cricketer-turned-politician has challenged his conviction in the IHC.

According to the appeal, Khan’s counsel was unable to rebut the final arguments of the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) lawyer in the trial court, as the former was preparing to file the challenge and moved another application for transfer of the matter to another court.

The petition stated that the trial court convicted Khan with a “pre-disposed mind”, and sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a fine of PKR 100,000.

The trial court verdict also means Khan is disqualified from contesting general elections.

The Toshakhana case was filed in October 2022 by the ECP which had earlier disqualified Khan for concealment of assets.

This is the second time in three months that Khan has been arrested in a case linked to corruption.

Earlier, he was arrested on May 9 in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, sparking violent protests by his supporters.

Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder since his ouster in April 2022.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday allowed Khan’s two aides – Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar – to go home after it heard their pleas against prolonged detentions under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.

The two leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party were held by the police in connection with the May 9 violence that erupted following the former prime minister’s arrest in a corruption case.

The IHC also said it would indict city Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon and a senior superintendent of police (SSP) for contempt of court as the two officials abused authority to obstruct the dispensation of justice.

Afridi was first arrested on May 16 from his Islamabad residence under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance, 1960. He was rearrested on May 30 under the same section soon after he was released from prison.

A petition was subsequently filed by his lawyer in the high court arguing Afridi’s release and for the MPO order to be set aside.

Gulzar was allegedly abducted by the Islamabad police on August 9. A petition filed by her mother in the IHC on the grounds of her illegal arrest and violation of Articles 4, 9, 10A and 14 of the Constitution, asked the police to produce her daughter in court.

IHC Justice Babar Sattar took up Afridi and Shandana’s pleas on Wednesday and sought responses from the officials who were summoned on Tuesday.