Imran Khan, the previous prime minister, along with his spouse, Bushra Bibi, on Monday launched their appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the conviction they received relative to the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case. An Islamabad accountability court sentenced Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to 14 years in prison and his wife to seven years along with severe fines earlier this month. The verdict was issued by Judge Nasir Javed Rana; the decision delivered yet another severe legal blow to Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023.
The case relates to allegations made in 2019 while Khan was still PM, that he and others misappropriated an amount of Rs.50 billion (which was equivalent to £190 million at that time) that was sent to Pakistan by UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). The party strongly objects to this ruling, seeing it as a result of political machination. In addition, the party has indicated that they plan to challenge this in higher forums. The appeal was filed by legal counsels Salman Akram Raja and Barrister Salman Safdar, who argued that the trial court had erred in interpreting the evidence and had ignored some pertinent facts, making the conviction unsafe.
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His plea also affirms that the conviction was politically contrived and that the NAB was used as a political tool for victimization. Khan, it points out, is already embroiled in over 280 cases, most of which have been acquitted in his favor. The prosecution, so this subject says, did not bring in any witnesses from the UK or Pakistan to back up their case. It further highlights a ruling from the UK Court of Appeal which established that the funds in contention were not the proceeds of crime, thereby damaging the prosecution’s case. Additionally, the jurisdiction of the NAB has been impugned in the petition; in its support, a ruling of the Supreme Court has been highlighted, whereby such cases require material evidence of personal financial use.
The petition also highlighted Khan’s contributions in the sectors of health and education, rejecting claims of any personal financial benefit accruing from the Al-Qadir Trust. It condemned the hastened manner in which the trial proceeded and stated that it was under extreme duress such that justice was compromised. The arrest of Khan on May 9, 2022, from the premises of the IHC was also challenged in the petition in violation of Section 24 of the NAB Ordinance, 1999.
This case is the latest of the many such cases citing Khan’s previous convictions which have now either been suspended or overturned.