Islamabad HC suspends Imran's sentence in Toshakhana case, orders release

Islamabad, August 29 (IANS) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan's sentence in the Toshakhana case and ordered his release from jail.

A division bench of the IHC, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Tariq Mehmood Jahangir, announced the much-anticipated reserved decision, The Express Tribune reported.

The court said that the copy of the judgement will be available shortly. 

On Monday, the counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the defendant in this case, concluded his arguments.

A heavy contingent of police and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary is present inside and outside IHC premises, The Express Tribune reported.

Separately, the former premier's sisters Aleema and Uzma Khan also reached the court.

Meanwhile, a petition has been submitted on behalf of the PTI chief by his lawyer Suleman Safdar, praying to the court to restrain the Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau and the police from arresting him in any other case.

Khan's legal team has requested the court to hear this plea today.

When the IHC bench resumed hearing the case on Monday, ECP’s counsel Amjad Pervaiz presented detailed arguments responding to the points raised by Khan’s lead counsel Latif Khosa.

At the first hearing of the case on August 25, Khosa had argued that Imran’s sentence should be suspended in view of an unauthorized filing of a complaint by the ECP; lack of jurisdiction; the fact that Imran was sentenced to only three years in prison; that the trial court deprived him of the right of defence and that it delivered the order without hearing arguments about the complaint’s maintainability