PTI’s Punjab Chapter confirmed the reports with a tweet: “Imran Khan is being moved to Kot Lakhpat Jail.”
The court sentenced Imran — who was absent from court — to three years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on him for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts. His lawyers were also not present.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar ruled that charges against the former prime minister in the case were proven.
“Imran Khan deliberately submitted fake details [of Toshakhana gifts] to the ECP and is found guilty of corrupt practices,” he stated and sent the PTI chief to jail for three years under Section 174 of the Election Act.
The law states that a person guilty of the offence of corrupt practice shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with a fine which may extend to Rs100,000 or both.
ADSJ Dilawar also directed that a copy of the order should be sent to the Islamabad police chief for the execution of the court orders.
During the hearing — which commenced at 8:30am — the judge repeatedly expressed displeasure over the absence of Imran’s lawyers. He, however, gave multiple chances to the defence counsel to appear in court.
Finally, at 12:30pm, ASDJ Dilawar announced the verdict. Roughly 29 minutes later, reports of Imran’s arrest surfaced.
The PTI chairman’s arrest today comes approximately three months after his first arrest on May 9 when he was detained in Islamabad from the high court’s premises in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
Unlike previous instances, where Zaman Park was usually guarded by PTI supporters, Imran was detained today without any major resistance.
Toshakhana case
The case, filed by ruling party lawmakers, is based on a criminal complaint filed by the ECP.
The case alleges that Imran had “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana — a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept — during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.
According to Toshakhana rules, gifts/presents and other such materials received by persons to whom these rules apply shall be reported to the Cabinet Division.
Imran has faced a number of legal issues over his retention of gifts. The issue also led to his disqualification by the ECP.
On Oct 21, 2022, the ECP concluded that the former premier had indeed made “false statements and incorrect declarations” regarding the gifts.
The watchdog’s order had said Imran stood disqualified under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution.
Subsequently, the ECP had approached the Islamabad sessions court with a copy of the complaint, seeking proceedings against Imran under criminal law for allegedly misleading officials about the gifts he received from foreign dignitaries during his tenure as the prime minister.
On May 10, Imran was indicted in the case. However, on July 4, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had stayed the proceeding and directed ADSJ Dilawar to re-examine the matter in seven days, keeping in view eight legal questions he framed to decide the maintainability of the Toshakhana reference.
The questions had included whether the complaint was filed on behalf of the ECP by a duly authorised person, whether the ECP’s decision of Oct 21, 2022, was a valid authorisation to any officer of ECP to file a complaint, and whether the question of authorisation was a question of fact and evidence and could be ratified subsequently during the course of proceedings.
Finally, on July 9, ADSJ Dilawar while ruling that the reference was maintainable, revived the stalled proceedings and summoned the witnesses for testimony.
A session court had last month declared that the ECP reference against the PTI chief was maintainable. The decision was subsequently challenged in the IHC.
A day earlier, the IHC gave a short breather to Imran, asking the judge to re-examine the jurisdiction and any procedure lapse in the filing of the complaint by the ECP.However, the judge instructed him to either present final arguments before noon or the verdict will be issued.
In his ruling, Justice Dilawar said that the charges against Imran had been proven.
Issuing the verdict, the trial court declared the PTI chief guilty of corrupt practices and of making an "incorrect" declaration before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
"The court finds its more than convincing that the complainant (ECP) had provided confidence-inspiring, well-knitted and corroborated evidence, and so the charge against the accused has successfully been proven that the accused has committed offence of corrupt practices by making and publishing false statements/declaration in respect of assets acquired by way of gifts from Toshakhana and disposed of during years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020,” wrote Justice Dilawar in the short order.
The Islamabad inspector-general of police (IGP) was instructed to ensure immediate implementation of arrest warrants.
The Toshakhana case was filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against the PTI chief for "deliberately concealing" the gifts he received during his term as the prime minister and retained them from the Toshakhana.
The ECP had already presented its final arguments in the case during earlier hearings.
ECP lawyer Amjad Parvez had argued that the PTI chief had admitted the charge in his statement to the court, therefore, the prosecution did not need to prove the case.
He said that the accused had admitted that the gifts were taken from Toshakhana, adding that the PTI chief claimed his tax returns would prove that he did not commit dishonesty.
However, the lawyer continued, the PTI chief’s tax returns had nothing to do with the case. He said that the PTI chief submitted a list of four witnesses who were tax consultants, therefore, it was rejected.
Parvez further argued that it was unbelievable that the PTI chairman did not have a single car or jewellery. “In four years, the PTI chairman had only four goats. Is it acceptable?”
'Arrest'
Shortly after the judgement was given, reports of the PTI chief's arrest were circulated from the party leadership in Punjab.
It appeared that the former premier was taken into custoday today without resistance unlike previous incidents wherein Zaman Park would be surrounded by PTI supporters at threat of arrest.
Imran was last arrested on May 11, when he was detained by the paramilitary Rangers from the premises of a court in Islamabad, where he had appeared for proceedings in the Al-Qadir case.
The arrest had prompted widespread riots and protests accross the country, leading to an uproar within the civil-military establishment, which vowed to deal with vandals who resorted to attacking army installations with an iron hand.
PTI chief's appeal
Meanwhile, the PTI chief once again approached the Supreme Court this morning seeking the Toshakhana case's transfer to another court.
He has repeatedly approached the IHC challenging the jurisdiction of the additional district and sessions judge for trying the case and raising other questions against its order of rejecting his right to defence in the case, but to no avail.
Today, while the hearing went on in the trial court, the PTI chief's lawyers submitted before the appex court that the IHC has forwarded the case to the same court for hearing against which we have raised objections.
The petition further contended that the IHC did not hear the PTI chief's objections against the judge on merit but it did observe that the trial court judge did not hear the petitioner's arguments on the maintainability of the case in the proper manner.
This observation lends credibility to the petitioner's claim that the judge is biased against him and in favour of the prosecution, contended the petition.
Among other contentions, the PTI chief's legal team has also objected to Justice Dilawar's rejection of the defendant's witness list.
Rejecting the PTI chief's latest request for transferring the Toshakhana case to another court, IHC Chief justice Aamer Farooq had noted that there were decisions of the higher courts that the case could be transferred only on the basis of concrete reasons and evidence.
On the matter of some alleged Facebook posts against the PTI chief from Judge Dilawar's account, the court had said that ADSJ Humayun Dilawar denied the posts attributed to him. It also said that the ECP lawyer also said that the posts attributed to the judge were fake.
The order directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to inquire into the matter of the alleged posts on the ADSJ’s Facebook account, and furnish a report to the IHC deputy registrar within a fortnight.
In the meantime the IHC forwarded the case to the same court to hear directing Judge Dilawar to decide on the matter of maintainability again.
The apex court was earlier informed by the ECP's lawyer that the trial court could not issue a verdict before the IHC gave its decision on maintainability and transfer issues.
