In a major development, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has suspended PTI Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sentence in the Toshakhana case.
According to the details, the long-awaited verdict was declared by a division bench composed of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, pertaining to the appeal filed by the former prime minister against his incarceration.
Read more: CJP Bandial comes down hard on trial court’s Toshakhana verdict
The verdict has come as a major legal victory for PTI and Imran Khan who had challenged his conviction and sentence awarded to him in the Toshakhana case.
اللہ الحق ہے، ہمیشہ حق اور سچ کی فتح ہوتی ہے !!#سرخرو_ہوا_کپتان_ہمارا pic.twitter.com/iCTo33ILFr
— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 29, 2023
On August 5th, the District and Sessions Court sentenced the PTI chairman Imran Khan to three-year imprisonment in the Toshakhana criminal case. Additionally, a fine of Rs 100,000 was levied on the leader of PTI who was found guilty. Furthermore, the former prime minister was disqualified from holding any public office for a duration of five years, as ruled by the court’s decision.
Subsequently, Imran Khan approached the IHC against his conviction and sentence. The IHC annulled the sessions court’s verdict on the maintainability of the Toshakhana case against the PTI chief as a temporary relief to him but rejected his request to transfer the case to another court.
Read more: Sessions court reserves verdict in Toshakhana case
Later, Imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Haris filed an application in the SC against the IHC’s decision. In his appeal, the PTI chairman requested the SC to overturn the high court’s order directing Khan to reappear in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar.
Last week, however, the SC had acknowledged “procedural defects” in Imran’s conviction but had opted to wait for the IHC decision on Imran’s plea. The court’s observations had drawn the ire of the Pakistan Bar Council, which said there should be no “interference” in matters pending before the subordinate judiciary.