Islamabad
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed ex-premier Imran Khan’s petition seeking the suspension of the trial court verdict in the Toshakhana case.
On August 5, a trial court in Islamabad had found the PTI chief guilty of “corrupt practices” in a case pertaining to concealing details of state gifts and sentenced him to three years in prison. Shortly after, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had disqualified Imran for five years.
On August 29, the IHC had suspended Imran’s three-year sentence in the Toshakhana case. Subsequently, Imran had approached the IHC seeking suspension of the trial court verdict.
The order issued today by a two-member bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com said that Imran’s application was not maintainable and was dismissed.
The order said that during the arguments, Imran’s lawyers had contended that the judgement be suspended under Section 426 (suspension of sentence pending appeals) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on the basis that the ECP had issued a notification disqualifying Imran. It further said that Imran’s counsels had argued that the court had the jurisdiction to suspend the judgement under this provision.
However, the judgement said that Section 561 (inherent powers of the court to save the ends of justice) of the CrPC could be invoked to “correct error or prevent the abuse of process of the court or to secure the ends of justice”.
“Bare reading of the application for suspension filed by the appellant shows that it was for suspension of the sentence only,” it said. It said that the main grounds for seeking rectification was the ECP’s notification disqualifying Imran.
“This court was informed that challenge to the notification has already been made before the Lahore High Court by way of a constitutional petition in which notices have been issued. Moreover, notification was in the field when application for suspension was made, however, no reference was made to it nor it was pleaded in the application that remedy of suspension of conviction be also granted,” the court order said.
It said that a “specific application” for the suspension of the verdict was made under a “specific provision of law i.e. section 426 CrPC and relief was sought which was granted, however, now an extraordinary relief is being sought by way of a general provision of law i.e. section 561-A CrPC”.
It said Imran had invoked a specific provision in his petition but did not “specifically pray in the same for suspension of the conviction”.
