Imprisoned Imran gets no practical relief

ISLAMABAD  -  The incarcerated former prime min­ister Imran Khan did not get any practical relief due to a number of rea­sons despite suspension of his sen­tence in the Toshakhana case by the Islamabad High Court (IHC). His re­lease order proved short-lived as he again found himself in jail in the miss­ing cipher case. Chairman PTI Imran Khan now has been kept in the same Attock Jail on a judicial remand in the case registered against him over charges of misus­ing a classified cable under the recently amended Of­ficial Secrets Act. Khan has alleged that he was oust­ed from power in April last year through a foreign con­spiracy and that “missing” cipher contained the threat from US to remove him from the office of prime minis­ter Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) and the legal team as well as family members of party chief Khan had pinned high hopes on the higher court and at first, they were jubilant over the short decision that sus­pended the three-year sen­tence of the ex-premier but legal experts suggest other­wise. At the same time, PTI tried to give an impression that the suspension order of the IHC has perhaps re­moved the stigma of con­viction on Khan in the case involving concealing the details of state gifts he re­ceived while in the office of prime minister. Most of the legal experts are of the view that the IHC order that sus­pended the sentence was a routine matter as courts usually used to suspend any sentence that is short and the appeal against it is pending before the high­er court. But the conviction of Imran Khan in the cor­ruption case is still intact as well as his disqualification for the five years from be­coming a member of a par­liament and holding a pub­lic office, they argue.

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