ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the PTI founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi’s appeals seeking suspension of their sentence in 190 million pound case.
A two-member bench of IHC comprising Acting Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif conducted hearing of the case.
During the hearing, Salman Akram Raja, Latif Khosa and Niazullah Niazi appeared before the court while Imran’s sisters and party leadership was also present in the court.
Khosa and other PTI lawyers requested the court that the matter be scheduled for hearing on next Wednesday.
Accepting the request, the court sought replies from NAB and other respondents and directed that the appeals be listed for hearing in the next week.
In this matter, founder Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking suspension of their sentences in 190 million pound case. They moved the court through their counsel Barrister Salman Safdar and cited the state and Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as respondents.
Counsel Salman stated in petition that the petitioners were convicted by the Accountability Court (I) Islamabad through judgment dated 17.01.2025 wherein they were held guilty for commission of offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined u/s 9(a)(ii)(iv)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and Imran was sentenced u/s 10(a) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 14 (Fourteen) years & fine amounting to Rs. 1,000,000/. Through the instant petition, they sought indulgence of this court for ‘Suspension’ of conviction & sentence awarded to them, till the final disposal of the main appeal already filed in the IHC.
The counsel contended that the petitioner is quite aggrieved and frustrated with the malicious campaign of political victimization the sole agenda of which is to keep him detained for an indefinite period of time.
He added that the allegations levelled against the petitioner does not find any support from the evidence produced during the trial in support of the baseless and frivolous accusations, therefore, petitioners craved for the kind indulgence of this court for grant of ‘Suspension of Sentence’.
Safdar stated that petitioner Imran is a 72-year-old, former prime minister who has been awarded sentence solely to keep him away from political the arena and post-arrest bail of petitioner was confirmed by the divisional bench of IHC on 14.05.2024 by taking into account the frivolous nature of allegations.
He also said that the post-arrest bail of Imran was confirmed by this court by acknowledging that legal framework agreement documenting the transaction between Malik Riaz family and NCA, UK, is absent from the record while provisions of Section 426(1) are analogous to those of Section 497 Cr.P.C. 1898.
The counsel contended that the NAB Reference No. 19/2023 is an outcome of relentless & never-ending wave of political victimization launched at the behest of political adversaries and Al-Qadir Trust Case & the subsequent conviction & sentence is the 3rd attempt by the NAB Authorities to implicate the petitioners in a frivolous & baseless case initiated as a result of well-orchestrated scheme.
He further argued that the prosecution has miserably failed to establish any monetary gain on behalf of petitioners and no funds or money was ever transferred to personal account of the Petitioner.
Barrister Safdar maintained that the NAB selectively prosecuted the petitioner & his wife while excluding six others making it a case of selective prosecution and sentence awarded to Imran by another Accountability Court in Toshakhana (I) case had already been suspended by this court while there is no abuse or misuse of the relief extended.
He further said that the conviction & sentence is unjustified, unfair and unsafe on the face of it, there is no likelihood of the immediate hearing of the main appeal therefore, petitioner craved for kind indulgence to ‘Suspend the Sentence’ awarded through Judgment dated 17.01.2025.
Therefore, he prayed that conviction & sentence awarded by the trial court vide impugned judgment dated 17.01.2025 may kindly be suspended & petitioners may kindly be released till the final disposal of Criminal Appeal No. 63 of 2025.