ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Tuesday suspended former prime minister Imran Khan’s conviction after hearing his plea against three-year sentence in a case involving unlawful sale of state gifts, though his detention would continue in another high-profile case after being accused of using a secret diplomatic cable for political purposes.
Khan was taken into custody by law enforcement agencies shortly after a trial court in Islamabad found him guilty for “corrupt practices” on August 5. He was taken to a high-security prison in Attock where he has remained incarcerated since then.
His conviction in the graft case prompted the country’s election authorities to disqualify him from contesting elections for five years under the relevant Pakistani laws.
“The instant application is allowed,” Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Amir Farooq briefly told Khan’s lawyers in the courtroom.
“The sentence awarded by the trial court... is suspended; consequently, the applicant is ordered to be released on bail in the instant matter subject to furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs100,000,” the judge wrote in the court order.
The former prime minister’s lawyers have frequently maintained their client was convicted without being given his constitutional right to defense.
Khan’s petition called the trial court’s ruling against him “without lawful authority [and] tainted with bias.” It maintained the court had rejected a list of witnesses for the defense a day before reaching its verdict, calling this a “gross travesty of justice, and a slap in the face of due process and fair trial.”
Reacting to the development, one of Khan’s close aides, Sayed Zulfi Bukhari the IHC had given bail to the former prime minister and his arrest in any other case would “cause further damage to our national integrity and repute of judicial system.”
“Let the innocent be free,” he added.
However, Khan has been facing a slew of legal cases against him since his ouster from power in a no-confidence vote in April last year.
A special court recently formed to hear cases under the Official Secrets Act directed the jail authorities in a letter to keep Khan in “judicial lockup” soon after the IHC issued its short order.
The letter further instructed prison officials to bring Khan to the court on August 30, Wednesday, in the cipher case registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The cipher case refers to a diplomatic cable from the United States, a copy of which reportedly went missing from Khan’s possession after he used the confidential document to build a case that the downfall of his administration in the no-trust vote was part of an international conspiracy.
The former prime minister is facing the allegation of compromising “the entire cypher security system of the state and secret communication method of Pakistani missions abroad.”
Meanwhile, Khan’s legal team has filed a fresh petition in the IHC, seeking directives to bar authorities from further “illegal and unjustified” arrest of the ex-premier in any case filed against him after August 5.
The petition filed by advocate Salman Safdar specifically mentions the cipher case registered by the FIA on August 15 and seeks protection from Khan’s arrest in the case.
Advocate Abid Saqi said that the authorities were required to initiate simultaneous remand and investigation of an accused within 14 days of his arrest, but this was not done in Khan’s case.
“Now it is up to the Islamabad High Court if it grants a blanket relief to Imran Khan in all cases, otherwise the accused would have to file separate bail petitions in each case to get the relief,” he told Arab News.