Islamabad
\nThe Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed ex-premier Imran Khan\u2019s petition seeking the suspension of the trial court verdict in the Toshakhana case.
\nOn August 5, a trial court in Islamabad had found the PTI chief guilty of \u201ccorrupt practices\u201d 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.
\nOn August 29, the IHC had suspended Imran\u2019s three-year sentence in the Toshakhana case. Subsequently, Imran had approached the IHC seeking suspension of the trial court verdict.
\nThe 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\u2019s application was not maintainable and was dismissed.
\nThe order said that during the arguments, Imran\u2019s 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\u2019s counsels had argued that the court had the jurisdiction to suspend the judgement under this provision.
\nHowever, the judgement said that Section 561 (inherent powers of the court to save the ends of justice) of the CrPC could be invoked to \u201ccorrect error or prevent the abuse of process of the court or to secure the ends of justice\u201d.
\n\u201cBare reading of the application for suspension filed by the appellant shows that it was for suspension of the sentence only,\u201d it said. It said that the main grounds for seeking rectification was the ECP\u2019s notification disqualifying Imran.
\n\u201cThis 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,\u201d the court order said.
\nIt said that a \u201cspecific application\u201d for the suspension of the verdict was made under a \u201cspecific 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\u201d.
\nIt said Imran had invoked a specific provision in his petition but did not \u201cspecifically pray in the same for suspension of the conviction\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed ex-premier Imran Khan\u2019s 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 \u201ccorrupt practices\u201d in a case pertaining to concealing details of state gifts and sentenced him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32],"class_list":{"0":"post-375870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-ihc"},"yoast_head":"\n