By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for former prime minister Imran Khan told the Islamabad High Court on Thursday that their client should be freed on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, pointing to more than a year of solitary confinement and an untreated eye infection that have worsened his condition in prison.
The request came during a hearing on appeals filed by Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, against their convictions in a high-profile corruption case known as the £190 million reference. Defence counsel Salman Safdar asked the court to suspend the couple’s sentences while the appeals are decided, arguing that the matter has lingered for more than 16 months and has already consumed 17 hearings.
Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar pressed Safdar on whether Khan was prepared to resolve the case through a final ruling on the appeal itself. The chief justice noted that while a suspension of sentence could be granted as interim relief, the court’s preference was to dispose of the main appeal expeditiously rather than prolong the proceedings with piecemeal applications.
Safdar replied that despite the passage of more than a year, the defence had received no meaningful relief. He told the court that both Khan and Bibi continued to endure the hardships of solitary confinement and that the judges could verify conditions inside the prison by consulting the inspector general of prisons. The lawyer urged the bench to consider immediate humanitarian relief on that basis.
Justice Dogar responded that the most appropriate path remained an early decision on the core appeal. He assured the defence that the court recognised the urgency and intended to decide the matter promptly.
The hearing also exposed procedural snags. The bench was informed of difficulties in obtaining a formal power of attorney and accessing medical reports from the jail. Turning to senior lawyer Latif Khosa, who was present in court, the chief justice asked how representation could proceed without proper documentation. Safdar explained that he was appearing under a valid power of attorney and that Khosa had previously represented Khan in the same case. He renewed his application for suspension of the sentences as interim relief.
Senior prosecutor Rafay Maqsood, appearing for the National Accountability Bureau, countered that once the appeals had been formally fixed for regular hearing, a separate application seeking suspension of sentence could not be entertained on its own. The proceedings included a brief, lighter exchange. The chief justice observed that the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had repeatedly complained about receiving no acknowledgement of his greetings. “Walaikum Assalam,” Justice Dogar added, instructing the lawyers to convey the response to Chief Minister Sohail Afridi. The court then adjourned the hearing without issuing an immediate ruling.
Khan, who has been imprisoned since Aug. 5, 2023, is serving a 14-year sentence handed down by an accountability court in Islamabad on Jan. 17, 2025. Bibi received a seven-year term in the same case. Both were convicted of corruption linked to the alleged concealment of details involving gifts received during Khan’s time in office, a matter commonly referred to in Pakistan as the Toshakhana case. The couple is being held at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. The underlying allegations center on claims that Khan and Bibi received billions of rupees and hundreds of kanals of land from Bahria Town Ltd. as inducements to help legitimise the return of approximately Rs50 billion that British authorities had identified and repatriated to Pakistan during Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.
The appeals before the Islamabad High Court represent the couple’s latest attempt to overturn the convictions and secure their release from custody. The case has drawn sustained attention in Pakistan, where Khan’s imprisonment has become a focal point of political contention between his supporters and the current government.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
