Pakistan court to hear acquittal plea today in graft case against Imran Khan

Police cammandos escort former Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan (C) as he arrives at the high court in Islamabad on May 12, 2023. (AFP/File)

• Khan is accused of illegally retaining expensive jewelry set from a state repository
• His wife was released in the same case last week after Pakistani court granted her bail 

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will hear former prime minister Imran Khan’s acquittal plea today, Tuesday, in a case involving allegations of illegally retaining gifts from the state repository, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said days after his wife was released on bail in the same case. 
Khan was convicted in four cases after being arrested in August last year, with two of the verdicts suspended since then while he was acquitted in the remaining two. However, Pakistan’s accountability watchdog earlier this year filed what has come to be popularly called the new Toshakhana reference involving a jewelry set worth over €380,000 gifted to the former first lady by a foreign dignitary when Khan was prime minister from 2018-2022. The couple is accused of undervaluing the gift and buying it at a lesser price from the state repository. 
Both Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, who were in Rawalpindi’s central prison till last week, have denied any wrongdoing in the case. In a huge relief for the embattled prime minister, Bibi was released on bail by the IHC last week while he continues to remain in prison. 
“Petition for acquittal filed by the former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Toshakhana case, scheduled for hearing tomorrow [Tuesday] at IHC,” the PTI said in a statement shared with the media on Monday. “The party has instructed all parliamentarians, lawyers to show up for the hearing.”
Khan has not physically appeared in court since August last year, with all hearings being held in the high-security Rawalpindi prison due to security concerns.
The PTI founder’s legal team has struggled to secure his release, arguing that all charges against him are fabricated to keep him out of politics.
Khan’s convictions had already ruled the cricketer-turned-politician out of the Feb. 8 general election as convicted felons cannot run for public office under Pakistani law. Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says all cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics.
Khan, who was ousted from office after a parliamentary vote in April 2022, has since waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the country’s powerful military, which is thought to be aligned with the government. 
He has accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government of colluding with the military and the country’s election authority to keep him and the PTI away from power. All three vehemently deny his allegations.