Pakistani court suspends ex-PM Imran Khan’s graft conviction
A Pakistani high court suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent conviction on corruption charges on Tuesday, his lawyer says.
“Our application has been accepted, and the sentence has been suspended,” Naeem Panjutha said on messaging platform X.
According to Panjutha, the Islamabad High Court suspended the sentence imposed by a lower court earlier this month.
Khan had filed an appeal against the conviction, after he was sentenced to three years on August 5 for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
The ex-PM’s legal team lodged the appeal against his conviction on the grounds that he was put to jail without being given the right to defend himself.
According to another one of his lawyers, Shoaib Shaheen, the high court also ordered Khan's release on bail.
However, it remains uncertain whether he will be freed as there are court orders for his arrest in other cases, including charges of abetment to murder, leaking state secrets, and orchestrating violent protests.
Aljazeera also reported that the two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday ordered Khan’s release on bail.
The high court’s decision to suspend the conviction marks another victory for Khan and comes on the heels of Balochistan High Court’s decision to dismiss sedition charges against him.
The high court said the prosecutors had failed to obtain the required consent from the federal or provincial government to lodge the charges of sedition.
The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician lost a confidence vote in the parliament in April 2022. Since his ouster has been at the centre of political turmoil in Pakistan.
Khan believes that the cases lodged against him were politically motivated to keep him out of power. He says the country’s powerful military is behind these cases.
Following his imprisonment earlier this month and with a national election expected in the coming months, Pakistan’s Election Commission also barred Khan from contesting elections for five years.
In past months, Pakistani authorities have made widespread arrests targeting Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in an attempt to allegedly crush his grassroots support; causing nationwide anger against the country’s military for ordering the crackdown.
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