Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was barred from politics for five years on Tuesday by Pakistan’s election commission after his conviction in Toshakhana corruption case, the local media reported.
Under Pakistani law, a convicted person cannot run for any public office for a period defined by the ECP, which could be up to a maximum of five years staring from the conviction date.
The former prime minister was sentenced to three years imprisonment on Saturday. He was arrested at his Lahore house and taken to a prison near Islamabad.
Imran Khan was tried on charges of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure from 2018 to 2022.
Khan’s legal team has filed an appeal seeking to set aside the guilty verdictwhich Islamabad High Court will take up on Wednesday.
The petition describes the conviction as “without lawful authority, tainted with bias”, reported Reuters.
The petition said the lower court had rejected a list of witnesses for the defence 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”.
Meanwhile, ARY News has reported that the Supreme Court of Pakistan will resume the hearing of the murder case of a Senior Supreme Court lawyer Abdul Razzaq Shar against Pakistan Imran Khan on Wednesday.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Yahya Afridi will resume the hearing. ANI reported citing ARY News.
Moreover, the former prime has submitted the additional to the Supreme Court, reported ARY News.
During the last hearing of the case, the Supreme Court bench summoned the PTI chairman Imran Khan to appear before it on August 9.