Islamabad [Pakistan], December 22 : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday announced that it will move the Supreme Court against the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) verdict in the Toshakhana case, Geo News reported.
Geo News is a Pakistani news channel.
The IHC on Thursday dismissed Imran Khan's plea seeking suspension of the trial court's verdict in the Toshakhana case.
Senior PTI leader and Imran's lawyer, Latif Khosa said the party would move the top court seeking nullification of the IHC verdict.
Khosa, who left the Pakistan Peoples Party to join PTI, alleged that the lower court's conviction of Imran was equivalent to "jurisdictional incapacity" and called the order "void".
He said that the high court claimed that the legal team did not provide many facts, but "I did provide all the facts in my arguments [...] I said them repeatedly."
"Imran Khan's basic rights are not being granted," Khosa said, alleging that IHC CJ Farooq was "baised" against the PTI leadership, as per Geo News.
He further said that trying to keep a big party out of the elections could not ensure their credibility. "There'll be uncertainty. If we don't have political stability, then we can't have economic stability."
As a result of the IHC's ruling, Khan remains disqualified from contesting elections.
The high court's ruling came a day before the deadline to submit nomination papers for elections for provincial and national assemblies that are scheduled for February 8, 2024.
The PTI founder was sent to jail for three years on August 5 after being found guilty of selling state gifts during his 2018-22 tenure as prime ministercharges he denies.
In his plea filed in the IHC, Imran sought to nullify the conviction. This sentence has barred him from running for office for five years, according to Geo News.
Khan's lawyer and spokesman on legal affairs, Naeem Haider Panjutha, said on X: "Imran Khan's request to suspend the decision in the Toshakhana criminal case was rejected so that disqualification would remain (in place)."
IHC's two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri said in its order that the PTI founder's petition was not maintainable, therefore, it was dismissed.
The order mentioned that Imran's lawyer had urged the IHC, during arguments, to suspend the judgment under Section 426 (suspension of sentence pending appeals) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had already issued a notification to disqualify the ex-PTI chief, according to Geo News.
The PTI founder's legal team had informed the IHC that it had the jurisdiction to suspend the judgement under the said provision.
But the two-member bench's order noted that CrPC Section 561 (inherent powers of the court to save the ends of justice) could be invoked to "correct error or prevent the abuse of process of the court or to secure the ends of justice".
"Bare reading of the application for suspension filed by the appellant shows that it was for suspension of the sentence only," it said, noting that the main grounds for seeking the suspension of the judgment was ECP's notification disqualifying the PTI founder.
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