Pakistan’s Supreme Court has rejected the plea of former Prime Minister Imran Khan to halt his trial on charges of unlawfully selling state gifts. Khan’s legal team expressed concerns about the trial’s fairness and alleged bias of the presiding judge.
Experts in legal matters speculate that a conviction, in this case, could potentially mark the end of Imran Khan’s political career.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Khan has been instructed to approach the Islamabad High Court to seek a ruling on his objections, as noted in an order witnessed by a Reuters reporter present during the proceedings.
After their plea to dismiss the trial based on the election commission’s petition was rejected by the high court, Imran Khan’s legal team escalated the matter to the top court, according to Barrister Gohar Khan, the former Prime Minister’s lawyer.
During the top court’s proceedings, one judge from the two-member panel clarified that the Supreme Court cannot interfere in trial court proceedings. As a result, the top court dismissed Khan’s petition and directed the high court to handle all his petitions related to the ongoing trial.
The trial court indicted Imran Khan in May on the charges and summoned him to commence his formal trial, which has been postponed due to the legal challenge made by his legal team in the high court.
The case in the trial court is centered around an inquiry conducted by the Election Commission of Pakistan, which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2019 to 2022.
Since his parliamentary ouster through a vote of confidence last year, the 70-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been entangled in a series of court cases, especially after his fallout with the powerful military. The military denies any involvement in his removal from power.
