Islamabad, (Samajweekly) The Islamabad High Court has adjourned till Friday former Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan’s plea challenging his trial and conviction in the Toshakhana case.
A trial court in Islamabad on August 5 had sentenced Khan to three years’ imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 1,00,000 while hearing the Election Commission of Pakistan’s criminal complaint against the former Prime Minister for concealing the details of Toshakhana gifts.
Latif Khosa, appearing for Khan, said the trial court’s decision had a lot of mistakes.
Highlighting that the high court had ordered the trial court to answer the questions raised by the defence, Khosa said the latter even ignored the orders of the high court.
ECP counsel Amjad Parvez said the PTI chief had been convicted on August 5, as documented. Parvez stressed that the trial bench decisions of the top court were part of the official record and clarified that the top court’s ruling had neither been reviewed nor contested.
The trial court had found Khan guilty of “corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer wilfully and intentionally”, Dawn reported.
The PTI chief had “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana — a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept — during his tenure as the Prime Minister, the ECP had said in its complaint.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Supreme Court had acknowledged “procedural defects” in Khan’s conviction by the trial court.
Khan is currently lodged in Attock jail.
