Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has reserved a judgment on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan’s plea seeking suspension of sentence by the trial court in the Toshakhana case.

A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, conducted the case’s hearing, which was adjourned on Friday due to the absence of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lawyer.

The ECP counsel, Amjad Parvez, who couldn’t attend the hearing due to health reasons, arrived at the court today to present his arguments in the case.

The IHC will announce verdict tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am.

The court instructed him to present arguments today (Monday). The IHC had also directed the electoral authority to arrange for alternative representation given the lawyer’s unavailability.

The IHC chief justice had expressed annoyance at the ECP lawyer’s absence, observing that the request for suspension of sentence is now at a “critical stage”.

The IHC CJ adjourned the hearing of the case, saying that the court will announce its verdict on the next hearing “even if no one comes”.

PTI lawyer, Latif Khosa, completed his arguments in the last hearing.

Earlier this month, a trial court had sentenced Khan to three years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100,000.

Khan challenged the verdict and approached the IHC for his release and suspension of the conviction. ECP, meanwhile, had filed a private complaint against Khan in the same case.