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A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is scheduled to address PTI chief Imran Khan’s petition on Monday, seeking a “rectification” of the court’s August 28 order. The August 28 order had suspended the sentence imposed on the former prime minister in the gift repository case.
The IHC bench, consisting of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Babar Sattar, will also consider objections raised by the court’s registrar office regarding the petition. Additionally, the petition seeks to include the state as a respondent in the case.
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On August 5, a trial court convicted former PM Imran in the Toshakhana case, sentencing him to three years in prison and disqualifying him as a lawmaker for five years. Imran Khan appealed the trial court’s decision to the IHC, and on August 28, a single-member bench of the IHC suspended his sentence.
However, since the bench did not suspend the operation of the trial court’s August 5 order along with the sentence, Imran remains ineligible to participate in the upcoming general elections, scheduled for the last week of January.
The petition, filed through Advocate Latif Khosa, argues that the IHC issued its August 28 order after extensive arguments from both sides. Nevertheless, when suspending the trial court’s sentence, the court “inadvertently” failed to suspend the August 5 order.
The petition asserts that this omission has seriously disadvantaged the applicant’s right, as he has been disqualified from contesting elections by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) based on the August 5 order.
“Therefore, the interests of justice demand that this omission…be rectified by exercising the powers under section 561-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the operation of the [August 5] order should be suspended until the final decision of the appeal.”
The petition also requests the court’s permission to include the state as a party in the case. During the Monday hearing, the IHC bench will also address the objections raised by the court’s registrar office regarding the petition. These objections include questions about seeking two types of relief in one application, seeking relief in a previously decided case, and seeking relief that was not requested in the initial application.
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