Imran Khan's request to have the arrest warrant in the Toshakhana case suspended rejected by the Islamabad Court
The Islamabad court rejected Imran Khan's motion for a stay of the arrest warrant in the Toshakhana case.
Khan has come under fire for buying gifts and reselling
them for a profit, including an expensive Graff timepiece he had acquired as
the prime at a discounted price from the official storeroom known as
Toshakhana.
Pakistan's Islamabad - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's request for the stay of an arrest warrant in the Toshakhana case was denied by the Islamabad district court.
Khan has come under fire for
purchasing presents, including a pricey Graff wristwatch he had received as
premier at a discounted price from the state storehouse known as Toshakhana,
and then profitably selling them.
When Khan skipped multiple hearings in the case, the
leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party filed a petition in the
district and sessions court of Islamabad challenging the warrants issued on
February 28. The non-bailable arrest warrant issued by the court last week for
his failure to show up in the Toshakhana case, however, was not withdrawn.
Further Sessions After hearing the arguments on the former
premier's case, Judge Zafar Iqbal reserved a judgment earlier in the day and
issued it after rejecting Khan's request. The accused had the opportunity to
appear before this court on February 28 following his hearings in other
respectable courts, but he purposefully chose not to do so, the judge stated in
his decision. A warrant is still in effect once it has been issued by a court unless
it is revoked or it is carried out in accordance with the law, the judge
stressed.
Khan is accused of omitting information about the items he
kept from the Toshakhana, a storage facility where gifts given to government
officials by foreign diplomats are held, from his asset reports. Authorities
are legally permitted to keep presents as long as they pay a pre-assessed sum,
which is normally a small portion of the gift's worth. Khan made "false
claims and erroneous declarations," according to the Election Commission
of Pakistan (ECP), about the present.
Thereafter, the ECP requested that Khan be prosecuted
under criminal law for concealing the sale of gifts before the Islamabad
Sessions Court. Khan was given a non-bailable warrant on February 28 by Additional
Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal for persistently failing to show up in court in the
Toshakhana case.
Khan went to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Sunday to
request post-arrest bail after an Islamabad police squad showed up at his Zaman
Park apartment to arrest him for missing hearings in the Toshakhana case.
However, Khan eluded the arrest, and the police team was left empty-handed. The LHC
registrar, according to a report in the Dawn daily, objected to Khan's argument
since comprehensive papers weren't filed with the applications.
Khan has not appeared at any sessions since November of
last year when he was injured after an attempt on his life during a rally in
the Punjabi town of Wazirabad. A special court in Islamabad granted temporary
bail to the former premier after he was wounded during the assassination
attempt. Since then, he has been granted medical bail extensions.
Khan was removed from office in April after losing a vote
of no-confidence in him, which he said was a result of a US-led plot to
assassinate him for his independent foreign policy choices on Russia, China,
and Afghanistan. The PTI leader, who took office in 2018, is the only Prime
Minister of Pakistan to have been removed by a vote of no confidence in
Parliament.
The Toshakhana case has been a source of anxiety for the
former premier, and his absence from the court only made things worse. Khan's
integrity and openness are called into doubt by the case, which might have huge
political repercussions for him and his party.
Khan's political opponents, who have been calling for him
to be held accountable for his acts, are likely to become more confident as a
result of the court's decision not to postpone the arrest warrant against him.
It is yet unclear how this case will turn out and if Khan will be able to
escape being taken into custody soon.
