Pakistan’s Supreme Court has returned an appeal filed by former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi. The appeal was lodged against an Islamabad High Court order that disposed of, without deciding, their plea to suspend their sentence in the £190 million corruption case. The Supreme Court registrar’s office raised an objection to the appeal and sent it back.
The registrar’s objection said that the legal remedy against the High Court order lay with the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), not the Supreme Court. The couple’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, opposed the objection, arguing that the appeal was fully admissible before the Supreme Court under Article 185(3) of the constitution.
The petition stated that, under Section 32A of the 1999 National Accountability Ordinance, there is provision for a second appeal to the FCC against certain High Court decisions. However, the ordinance carries no clear legal requirement to appeal to the FCC against orders on bail or sentence-suspension pleas. In the absence of a specific statutory remedy, therefore, the only appropriate forum to challenge the order is Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
Earlier, in early May, the Islamabad High Court disposed of the sentence-suspension plea on the ground that, as the hearing date for the main appeal had already been set, there was no justification for considering a separate sentence-suspension plea.
In the appeal, Imran Khan said that while imprisoned he had developed an eye condition and had to be taken outside jail for treatment. Keeping him detained in this way despite serious health risks was unjust, he said, and prolonged solitary confinement had caused him extreme mental anguish. The petition also alleged that the sentence-suspension plea had been deliberately delayed.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report