- Thursday, February 27, 2025
The decision came in the wake of his conviction in a corruption case last week and ahead of the country’s next parliamentary elections.
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN a major development in the politics of Pakistan, the country’s election body on Tuesday (8) disqualified former prime minister Imran Khan for a period of five years following his conviction in a corruption case last week.
On Saturday (5), a trial court in Islamabad sentenced the 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician, who was absent from the hearing, to three years of jail and slapped him with a fine of Rs 100,000 while hearing the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) criminal complaint against him.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supremo was accused of concealing details of Toshakhana gifts and the court found him guilty of “corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer wilfully and intentionally”, the Dawn reported.
“He cheated while providing information of gifts he obtained from Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate. His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt,” the court order read, according to the Pakistani newspaper report.
Khan was later arrested by the police in the Punjab province from his residence in Lahore.
According to the Dawn report, the verdict meant that Khan technically stood disqualified from occupying any public office for five years under Article 63(1)(h) of the country’s constitution, which
The verdict signified that Imran technically stood disqualified from holding any public office for five years under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution, which says: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Parliament if he has been, on conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Khan filed a petition in the high court in Islamabad through his lawyers against the verdict of the trial court, saying the said order was “not sustainable” and “liable to be set aside”.
The petition was set to be taken up on Wednesday by a two-judge bench comprising the chief justice of the high court, Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, the Dawn report added.
The cricketer-turned-politician’s conviction and subsequent disqualification happens amid a turmoil in Pakistan’s politics that started with his ouster in April last year through a no-trust vote. After the tenure of his government ended prematurely, the former prime minister launched a campaign seeking elections and blaming the incumbent government and army leadership for his removal.
