Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Incarcerated in the Attock District Jail since August 5, Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi had little to cheer about on Tuesday when the Islamabad High Court suspended his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case as he will remain in ‘judicial remand’ in the cipher case for now.
Serving as Pakistan’s Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, cricketer-turned-politician, Imran Khan, 70, is currently facing nearly 150 court cases clamped on him ever since he lost power to a multiparty coalition in April 2022.
In the cipher case, he was booked under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act for allegedly misusing a confidential diplomatic cable (also known as a ‘cipher’) from Pakistan’s embassy in the United States, and for making its content public.
The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday suspended his three-year sentence in the Toshakhana corruption case. However, he will remain in judicial remand until he is presented before a special court on August 30 in connection with the cipher case, the media reported.
A Bench, comprising Islamabad HC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, suspended Khan’s conviction and sentence in the Toshakhana case.
Khan’s spokesman on legal affairs, Naeem Haider Panjotha, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce the news. “Punishment suspended Alhamdulillah,” he wrote in Urdu. He also shared a video of the legal team gathering in the court to hear the much-anticipated order.
The Dawn reported that Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan were among those present at the court.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers, celebrating the verdict, gathered outside the court complex, raising slogans for their leader’s release.
The Imran-led party also moved a petition in the Islamabad HC, praying that he not be arrested in any cases filed after August 5, when he was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.
Imran’s successor and former Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif criticized the court verdict and reminded that Khan’s sentence has only been suspended and “not terminated.”
“Before the decision came, everyone knew what was going to be, so this should be a moment of concern for the justice system,” he wrote on X in Urdu.
The former PM was sentenced on charges of unlawfully selling state gifts acquired by him and his family during his 2018-2022 tenure. He has also been barred from politics for five years, preventing him from contesting an upcoming election.