Toshakhana case: SC urged to fix IK’s appeal for hearing against IHC’s verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has been asked to fix former prime minister Imran Khan’s appeal against the Islamabad High Court’s judgment not suspending his conviction in Toshakhana reference.

Imran Khan, on Thursday, through Barrister Ali Zafar filed an application for early hearing of his case, saying the case is of paramount and national importance but has been lingering in the courts unnecessarily. The non-fixation of this before the Supreme Court in spite of many requests made is causing anguish and trepidation in the public.

The operation of the impugned order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and non-hearing of the appeal is causing immense loss not just to the petitioner but also to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the public, which is unable to elect him as chairman of PTI and member of the parliament.

Barrister Ali Zafar submitted that the ECP, contrary to the constitution and the law, de-seated former prime minister Imran Khan from the National Assembly seat Mianwali. This was done by ECP on the behest of Speaker National Assembly who belonged to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The Speaker National Assembly sent a reference under Article 63(1) alleging that the ex-PM had been disqualified for not declaring certain gifts received by him.

The ECP in clear and blatant violation of the law, vide order dated 19-12-23 decided that the former prime minister has misdeclared the assets and de-seated him from the National Assembly seats.

Furthermore, in a mala fide action, and with the intention of disqualifying Imran Khan from contesting future elections, ECP also, in the same order dated 19-12-23 decided to file a criminal case against Imran Khan. This illegal and mala fide decision of ECP was challenged before the IHC.

The ECP on 07-01-2022 also removed Imran Khan from the chairmanship of the PTI. The ECP orders were then challenged in two writ petitions before the IHC (4041/2022) and the Full Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) (332/2023).

The LHC Bench in writ petition 332/2023 at various dates heard the case but was unable to proceed further because the writ petition 4041/2022 was pending before the IHC. The sole purpose of it was to keep Imran Khan out of politics.

Zafar contended that since the writ petition 332/23 was heard by a five-member bench of the LHC, the petitioner; therefore, filed an application for withdrawal of writ petition 4041/22 from IHC on 17-09-23, but it was dismissed by the IHC with the observation that the Supreme Court should decide the matter of consolidation of the two petitions.

The order of the IHC was then challenged before the Supreme Court in CPLA 27/2024 for consolidation of the cases. In the meanwhile, the ECP filed a criminal petition before the Additional Sessions Judge, Islamabad, which convicted Imran Khan on 05-08-2023 for five years.

However, the IHC in criminal appeal 273/23 suspended the sentence, but did not suspend the conviction. An appeal on 25-08-23 was filed before the apex court against the IHC’s verdict not suspending the conviction, but it has not been fixed so far despite various applications.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024