Shaheer Ahmed
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s sentence, imposed on him in the Toshakhana case, has been suspended by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The IHC made public the brief decision it had reserved a day earlier ordering the authorities to grant the PTI leader bail.
The court declared that the specifics of the sentence suspension would be covered in the detailed verdict that would be delivered later.
Sources claim that the PTI leader has been instructed to provide a Rs. 100,000 surety bond in lieu of the bail. The decision is a significant success for Khan in his legal battle against his conviction and sentence imposed in the Toshakhana case.
Khan was found guilty of corrupt practises related to the state gift repository earlier this month, and a district and sessions court in the federal capital sentenced him to three years in prison and assessed a fine of Rs100,000 as punishment. This decision disqualified Khan from running in the upcoming elections.
Immediately following the trial court’s decision on August 5, the former prime minister—who has been barred from holding any public office as a result of the conviction—was detained and has since been held at Attock jail.
Following his conviction in the Toshakhana case brought by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Khan filed a plea with the high court contesting the ADSJ Humayun Dilawar’s ruling.
The hearing on the plea was finished and the judgement was reserved on Monday by a division bench made up of Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.
What is Toshakhana?
Toshakhana, whose name means “treasure house” in Persian, was established in 1974. It is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and houses priceless gifts that foreign dignitaries and heads of other governments and states have given as tokens of their goodwill to rulers, lawmakers, bureaucrats, and officials.
From gold-plated trinkets, pricey artworks, and bulletproof cars to watches, jewellery, rugs, and swords, it contains riches.
Toshakhana regulations state that while officials are required to pay a significantly reduced charge for lavish gifts, they are permitted to keep low-value gifts.
Imran Khan’s Case:
Since the suspicions that Khan bought the presents he received as prime minister at bargain prices and sold them off in the open market for enormous profits first surfaced, the Toshakhana has been the subject of intense scrutiny.
The 70-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician was charged with abusing his position as premier from 2018 to 2022 to purchase and resell goods that were brought back from trips abroad and costing more than Rs140 million ($635,000).
According to government officials, among the presents were watches supplied by a royal family. These officials have previously claimed that Khan’s advisers sold the watches in Dubai.
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