Pak court refuses instant relief to Imran Khan; rejects his request to suspend sentence

Pakistans jailed former prime minister Imran Khans bid to get his conviction suspended in a corruption case did not succeed on Wednesday as the Islamabad High Court adjourned the hearing but assured him that his case would be decided in four to five days.

Khan, 70, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Islamabad trial court on Saturday in the Toshakhana corruption case in which he is accused of profiting from selling expensive state gifts when he was in power. He was subsequently arrested by Punjab police from his residence in Lahore.

Khan, who is currently lodged in the Attock Jail, appealed his conviction and the three-year prison sentence in the case by filing a plea through his lawyers at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.

During the proceedings presided over by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Haris argued that the trial court announced its verdict without allowing him to plead the case and asked the court to suspend the sentence and take up the appeal against conviction for hearing from tomorrow.

“The decision of the trial court in the Toshakhana case is against the law,” he stated in the plea seeking for the verdict to be annulled.

Chief Justice Farooq after hearing arguments refused to grant relief in the form of a suspension and declared that the petition would be fixed for a regular hearing within the next four to five days. He also issued notices to concerned parties.

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