Ex-Pakistan PM Imran disqualified from contesting polls for 5 years

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has disqualified former Prime Minister Imran Khan for five years following his conviction in the Toshakhana case, Dawn reported on Tuesday. An Islamabad trial court on Saturday sentenced Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to three years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh (PKR).

Khan is accused of misusing his premiership from 2018 to 2022 to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than Rs 140 million (USD 635,000). The court found him guilty of "corrupt practices by hiding the benefits he accrued from the national exchequer wilfully and intentionally". 

The court order said that Imran Khan cheated while providing information about gifts he obtained from Toshakhana which later proved to be false and inaccurate. "His dishonesty has been established beyond doubt."

In a notification, the ECP today cited that court order and declared the PTI chief disqualified for five years. "Therefore, Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is disqualified for a period of five years and is also de-notified as a returned candidate from constituency NA-45 Kurram-I," the notification said as per Dawn.

Earlier today, Imran Khan's lawyer filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court, saying that the order was "not sustainable" and "liable to be set aside". The petition will be taken up on Wednesday by a two-member bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, the report said.

Imran Khan is currently lodged in the Attock Jail. He has appealed his conviction and the three-year prison sentence in the case by filing a plea through his lawyers - Khawaja Haris and Gohar Ali Khan. He said that the trial judge made the conclusions on the basis of a "predisposed mind" instead of the merit of the case because the petitioner's lawyer was not given the right of presenting arguments.

This is the second time in three months that Khan has been arrested. Khan was arrested on May 9 in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. 

The police on Tuesday said that more than 200 supporters of Imran Khan, including those who resisted the former prime minister's arrest in a corruption case, have been arrested across Pakistan's Punjab province.

(With inputs from PTI)