ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi’s appeals to suspend sentences in £190 million case on May 8.
A two-member bench of IHC comprising Acting Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif will hear the case along with the objections raised by the IHC Registrar office.
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were convicted by the Accountability Court (I) Islamabad through judgment dated 17.01.2025, wherein, they were held guilty for commission of offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined u/s 9(a)(ii)(iv)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and Imran was sentenced u/s 10(a) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 14 years and fine amounting to Rs1,000,000.
Through the instant petition, they sought indulgence of this court for “Suspension” of conviction and sentence awarded to them, till the final disposal of the main appeal already filed in the IHC.
It is their stance that that aggrieved and frustrated with the malicious campaign of political victimisation the sole agenda of which is to keep him detained for an indefinite period of time. They added that the allegations levelled against the petitioner does not find any support from the evidence produced during the trial in support of the baseless and frivolous accusations, therefore, petitioners craved for the kind indulgence of this court for grant of “Suspension of Sentence”.
Barrister Salman Safdar, the petitioners counsel, submitted that Imran is a 72 years old, former prime minister, who has been awarded sentence solely to keep him away from political arena. He stated that post-arrest bail of Imran was confirmed by the divisional bench of IHC on 14.05.2024 by taking into account the frivolous nature of allegations.
He also said that the post-arrest bail of Imran was confirmed by this court by acknowledging that legal framework agreement documenting the transaction between Malik Riaz family and NCA, UK, is absent from the record while provisions of Section 426(1) are analogous to those of Section 497 CrPC 1898.
The counsel contended that the NAB Reference No 19/ 2023 is an outcome of relentless and never-ending wave of political victimisation launched at the behest of political adversaries and Al-Qadir Trust Case and the subsequent conviction and sentence is the 3rd attempt by the NAB Authorities to implicate the petitioners in a frivolous and baseless case initiated as a result of well-orchestrated scheme.
He argued that the prosecution has miserably failed to establish any monetary gain on behalf of petitioners and no funds or money was ever transferred to personal account of the petitioner.
Barrister Safdar maintained that the NAB selectively prosecuted the petitioner and his wife while excluding six others making it a case of selective prosecution and sentence awarded to Imran by another Accountability Court in Toshakhana (I) case had already been suspended by this court while there is no abuse or misuse of the relief extended.
He said that the conviction and sentence is unjustified, unfair and unsafe on the face of it, there is no likelihood of the immediate hearing of the main appeal therefore, petitioner craved for kind indulgence to “Suspend the Sentence” awarded through Judgment dated 17.01.2025.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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