Islamabad, Jul 26: In a jolt to Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the ousted prime minister’s plea to stay the criminal proceedings against him in the Toshakhana corruption case.
The case pertains to the allegations that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief had “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.
Khan is accused of misusing his 2018 to 2022 premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than Rs 140 million (USD 635,000).
Khan, 70, had approached the apex court after being denied relief in the case by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the Geo News channel reported.
The Election Commission of Pakistan on October 21 last year, disqualified the former prime minister in the Toshakhana case for making “false statements and incorrect declaration”.
In May, a trial court rejected Khan’s petition challenging the maintainability of the case and indicted the PTI chief, who denied all the allegations of misdeclaration of gifts.
Subsequently, Khan challenged the trial court’s decision before the IHC, which sent the case back to the trial court for re-examination. On July 8, the trial court concluded that the ECP’s petition is maintainable and proceeded further against the former premier who then approached the apex court for relief.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Yahya Afridi of the two-member bench remarked that the apex court will not interfere in the trial court’s matters in the Toshakhana corruption case.
However, it urged the IHC to decide three of Khan’s pending petitions challenging the court’s decision to return the matter to the trial court after his lawyer Khawaja Haris informed the bench that there are multiple petitions related to the jurisdiction of the trial court and transfer of the Toshakhana case pending in the high court, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder since he was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan. (Agencies)
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