In the Toshakhana reference submitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were convicted on Wednesday to 14 years of hard punishment by an accountability court in Islamabad.
In addition to the sentence, the court fined the former premier and his spouse Rs. 1.5 billion and barred him from holding public office for ten years.
Following the decision, the PTI, other political party leaders, and legal and political experts discussed the verdict’s implications in light of the accountability court’s timing—which comes just a few days before the nation’s general elections, which are scheduled for February 8—with one another.
PTI leader and eminent attorney Ali Zafar expressed dissatisfaction over the judgment’s hurried issuance and failure to meet the standards of justice.
He added that the ruling of today came before the high court’s hearing could even take place. “Yesterday, PTI founder and lawyers said that 17 witnesses should be allowed to cross-examine, but the court told them to go to the high court after which permission will be given for cross-examination,” the PTI founder said.
“If cross-examination is prohibited, the trial is a mistrial. Both the prosecution and the sentencing against the PTI founder are unlawful, according to Zafar.
