ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for banning PTI leader Imran Khan from contesting elections for a period of five years following his conviction in a concealment of assets (Toshakhana) case.
Headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, a three-judge bench that had taken up a number of cases moved by the PTI founder.
National Assembly Opposition Leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Senate Opposition Leader Raja Nasir Abbas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, PTI interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Barrister Ali Zafar and others were present inside Courtroom No. 2.
During the hearing, Justice Salahuddin Panwhar wondered why the petitioner had not challenged the ECP notification, which had disqualified him. Justice Kakar observed that it would be better to summon the ECP to explain the disqualification.
Apex court adjourns proceedings in cipher, defamation cases against PTI chief
Sardar Latif Khosa argued that in the concealment of assets case, the sentence awarded to the petitioner was suspended, but not the judgement. Justice Kakar reminded the counsel that he had only requested the Islamabad High Court to suspend the sentence and the high court had granted him the relief.
Mr Khosa contended that he wanted to cite 2019 Nasir Mehmood case in which the SC had held that suspension of sentence would have the same consequence as the suspension of the judgement.
Prosecutor General Islamabad Sarwar Nahang, however, said that the suspension of the sentence and suspension of the conviction were two different things.
Despite reluctance by Mr Khosa, the court asked the counsel to read the particular paragraph from the 2019 judgement, wherein it was held by the SC that unless the conviction was specifically suspended or the appeal was ultimately allowed and conviction as well as sentence were set aside, the conviction of the appellant would continue to hold the field and the disqualification would remain intact.
Justice Kakar observed that the counsel, by invoking a citation against his case, had blocked the way the court was considering to provide relief. “It seems your eyesight has become weak,” Justice Kakar quipped. He added that another way was to listen to the ECP’s point of view to know why the petitioner was disqualified.
The SC then postponed the proceedings for an indefinite period.
The same bench adjourned further proceedings in the cipher case against PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi when Special Prosecutor Zulfikar Naqvi sought time to furnish a detailed judgement in the case.
