Toshakhana case
\nIHC orders to release PTI chief Imran Khan on bail; detailed verdict to be issued later
\nISLAMABAD
\nThe Islamabad High Court (IHC) has suspended the three-year sentence of PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan in Toshakhana case and ordered his release, but the ex-premier will remain in Attock Jail in connection with cipher case.
\nThe chances of Khan\u2019s release after suspension of his Toshakhana sentence have become nil after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) \u201carrested\u201d him in Attock Jail in connection with cipher case.
\nThe Official Secrets Act Court had kept Imran Khan in Attock Jail on judicial remand until August 30 in cipher case. Judge Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain had already pronounced the verdict of judicial remand and sent the written order to the Attock Jail superintendent, directing him to produce Imran Khan in court after his judicial remand expires on August 30 (Wednesday-tomorrow).
\nEarlier, pronouncing the decision reserved on Monday, the two-judge IHC bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri ordered the release of Imran Khan on bail against the surety bond of Rs100,000.
\nThe bench reserved the judgment on the former prime minister\u2019s appeal against his prison term on Monday after hearing the arguments from the ECP lawyer and PTI chief\u2019s lawyer Latif Khan Khosa.
\nAnnouncing the verdict two hours before the scheduled time of 11:00 am, Chief Justice Aamer Farooq remarked: \u201cThe copy of the judgment will be available shortly \u2026 all we are saying now is that [Imran\u2019s] request has been approved.\u201d
\nPTI chief\u2019s legal counsel Naeem Haider Panjutha also confirmed the same in a post on X (formerly Twitter): \u201cThe CJ has accepted our request, suspended the sentence and said a detailed decision would be provided later.\u201d
\nImran Khan\u2019s party and lawyers said he was granted bail, but they feared the 70-year-old would be rearrested over one of the more than 200 cases levelled against him since he was ousted by parliamentary vote in April 2022.
\nOn August 5, a sessions court of Judge Hamayun Dilawar in Islamabad convicted Imran Khan in the case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and sentenced him to three years in prison. The verdict meant he was disqualified from contesting general elections for five…
\nImran Khan moved to the high court and filed an appeal against his conviction. He had also approached the Supreme Court against the IHC\u2019s decision to remand the case back to the trial court judge who had convicted him.
\nOn Aug 23, the Supreme Court observed that there were \u2018procedural defects\u2019 in the verdict of the trial court which convicted former prime minister and sent him to jail in the Toshakhana Reference.
\n\u201cPrima facie the decision by the additional sessions judge (ASJ) contains defects, but we will not intervene at this stage; rather wait for the outcome of the high court decision,\u201d Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial observed during the hearing.
\nHowever, the Punjab Bar Council objected to the observation of the top judge, stressing that there should be no interference in matters sub judice in the subordinate judiciary.
\nDuring yesterday\u2019s hearing of the case in the Islamabad High Court, Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz completed his arguments and opposed the PTI chairman\u2019s petition seeking suspension of his sentence. He gave several references citing various laws and court judgments in support of his arguments. He said that Imran Khan was sentenced in the corrupt practices case.
\nThe ECP lawyer requested the court to issue notice to the public prosecutor in the case. CJ Farooq remarked that it was the ECP, and not the state, that had filed a petition against Imran. \u201cYou did not state this during the case\u2019s hearing in the trial court,\u201d he said. ECP\u2019s lawyer, on the occasion, cited a relevant decision given by a court in India.
\nHe said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had been sentenced to two years in prison on a private complaint. \u201cRahul appealed the decision, which was rejected by the court, saying the suspension of a sentence was not a \u2018hard and fast rule\u2019,\u201d he said, and added, \u201cTruth of the matter is that the state has not been made a respondent in PTI chief\u2019s petition.\u201d
\nCJ Farooq remarked that it was the ECP\u2019s private complaint against the former prime minister. \u201cWhen there was no reference to the state during the hearing in the trial court, then why should it be mentioned now?\u201d he questioned.
\nThe chief justice went on to say that a complainant was never made a party in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases. Advocate Pervaiz said that a prosecutor had been defined in the NAB laws. \u201cThe state has nothing to do with the NAB case; it is the bureau\u2019s own prosecutor who is listened to,\u201d the lawyer said, adding, \u201cAn order by a court without listening to arguments by the NAB is unthinkable.\u201d
\nHe said that it was the CrPC that shed light on \u2018Public Prosecutor\u2019. ECP\u2019s lawyer requested the court to issue a notice to the government. \u201cI have already given references of 14 court verdicts,\u201d he added.
\nHe further said that even the appellant had not objected to a trial by a sessions court. \u201cTheir contention is that it is the sessions court, which has to hear the case. But the complaint should first go to a magistrate,\u201d Advocate Pervaiz told the court.
\nHe went on to say that it was being alleged by the PTI that its chairman had not been granted the right to defence in the case. \u201cI was the one who had said during trial in the sessions court that the defendant should be given that right,\u201d he added.
\nThe lawyer said that the court, in its verdict, had said that Imran had been found involved in \u2018corrupt practices\u2019, and that action should be taken against him. \u201cI will say nothing new in the case,\u201d Advocate Pervaiz said, and regretted that the PTI had bent upon projecting the ECP and judge Humayun Dilawar as \u2018villains\u2019.
\nThe chief justice cut him short and asked him to better concentrate on the case on hand. After hearing the ECP lawyer, the court reserved its verdict. Meanwhile, the former First Lady Bushra Bibi has reached Attock Jail to meet her husband Imran Khan whose three-year sentence in Toshakhana has been suspended by the Islamabad High Court earlier today.
\nSecurity was on high alert across the jail. Bushra Bibi was stopped at the police checkpost. This would be the third meeting of Bushra Bibi with her husband Imran Khan whose chances of getting out of the Attock Jail are slim due to a case registered against him under the Official Secrets Act.
\nMeanwhile, two sisters of Imran Khan, Aleema and Uzma, have also reached Attock Jail to meet their brother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toshakhana case IHC orders to release PTI chief Imran Khan on bail; detailed verdict to be issued later ISLAMABAD The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has suspended the three-year sentence of PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan in Toshakhana case and ordered his release, but the ex-premier will remain in Attock Jail in connection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n