Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s appeal against Toshakhana conviction to be heard on 22 Aug

The Islamabad High Court will hear an appeal by jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan against his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case, media reports revealed on Wednesday. Khan, 70, was sentenced to three years in jail by a sessions court on 5 August for hiding proceeds from the sale of state gifts (Toshakhana). The former PM, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is currently incarcerated in Attock Jail in the province of Punjab. He was “found guilty of corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he acquired from the national exchequer willfully and intentionally”. Khan cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from the Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate. “His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” the trial order said on 5 August. The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries. The cricketer-turned-politician has challenged his conviction in the Islamabad High Court which formed a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, to initiate the hearing on August 22. According to the appeal, Khan’s counsel was unable to rebut the final arguments of the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) lawyer in the trial court, as the former was preparing to file the challenge and moved another application for transfer of the matter to another court. The petition stated that the trial court convicted Khan with a pre-disposed mind, and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment with a fine of PKR 100,000. The trial court verdict also means Khan is disqualified from contesting general elections. The Toshakhana case was filed in October 2022 by the ECP which had earlier disqualified Khan for concealment of assets. This is the second time in three months that Khan has been arrested in a case linked to corruption. Earlier, he was arrested on May 9 in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, sparking violent protests by his supporters. Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder since his ouster from office in April 2022.