The Islamabad High Court adjourned the hearing of the case pertaining to the suspension of a three-year jail term of former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in the Toshakhana Reference case.
Imran Khan is currently incarcerated in Attock Jail.
The hearing was adjourned because Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP’s) lawyer Amjad Pervaiz did not conclude his argument because he was “extremely unwell”. The case will be heard on August 28 i.e. Monday.
Imran Khan was convicted by a trial court in Islamabad on August 5 in the case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which alleged that the former Pakistan prime minister and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief concealed details of state gifts. This verdict also ensured his disqualification from contesting general elections for five years.
The former prime minister filed an appeal in the high court against his conviction and also approached the Pakistan supreme court against the Islamabad high court’s decision to remand the case back to the trial court judge who convicted him.
The ECP legal team dismissed arguments levelled against the sentence by pointing out that superior courts could suspend the sentence of those prisoners who have at least completed six months imprisonment. If the court were to side with this argument, Imran Khan would then be released only after the polls in Pakistan and also not get a chance to appeal his disqualification.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is also awaiting the high court’s decision and has halted all proceedings on Imran’s plea. It also asked Pakistan’s attorney general Mansoor Usman Awan to furnish an official report about the living conditions of Imran in Attock Jail by Monday.
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi meanwhile also urged the apex court to take “serious notice” of the alleged threat to her husband’s life inside Attock Jail and highlighted a considerable decline in his health.
Bushra Bibi last week wrote to the Punjab government saying that she was scared that Imran Khan could be poisoned inside Attock Jail. Bushra in her petition highlighted a “significant decline in the petitioner’s health” and that Imran Khan “appears to have lost weight substantially during the course of his confinement, particularly loss of muscles around his arms”.
“Such a decline in the health of a person in his 70s can be a serious danger to his life,” the petition said.