The Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved on Monday its verdict regarding Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s plea against conviction in the Toshakhana case.
A division bench comprising Justice Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri presided over the proceedings.
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Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lawyer, Advocate Amjad Pervaiz presented his arguments for opposing the suspension of former PM’s jail sentence.
Imran’s lawyer Latif Khosa had completed his arguments in the previous hearing.
After hearing arguments, the IHC said it will announce the verdict tomorrow.
Imran’s arrest
On August 5, Imran was arrested from his Lahore residence shortly after a district and sessions court in the federal capital found him guilty in the Toshakhana case and sentenced him to three years in prison. He is currently being kept in Attock Jail.
In his petitions, Imran expressed dissatisfaction over the Additional Sessions Judge, Islamabad (West) order of August 5, whereby, he was convicted under Article 174 of the Election Act, 2017.
He added that the said impugned order was not sustainable and liable to be set aside.
The petitioner submitted that the impugned judgement had been passed “with a pre-disposed mind” of the learned trial judge to convict and sentence the appellant irrespective of the merits of the case. They stated that the impugned judgement had been passed without providing proper or adequate opportunity of hearing to the appellant.
Last year in October, the ECP had disqualified Imran from his parliamentary membership for filing “false” and “incorrect declaration” in his statement of assets and liabilities for the year 2020-21 filed with the electoral entity.
Background
Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.
Lawmakers from the ruling coalition had filed a reference last year against Imran alleging that he had not shared details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana and proceeds from their reported sales.