Pak court rejects ex-PM Imran Khan's pre-arrest plea in Toshakhana corruption case

Judge Muhammad Bashir of the Islamabad-based accountability court reserved the verdict on the bail plea of jailed former premier Imran Khan in the Toshakhana corruption case and adjourned the hearing till Thursday.

Islamabad:An anti-corruption court in Pakistan on Wednesday rejected the pre-arrest bail of jailed former premier Imran Khan in the Toshakhana corruption case. The Toshakhana case is based on the allegations that the 71-year-old former premier violated the Toshakhana rules. The Toshakhana (state repository) is where all gifts that are gifted by foreign leaders to the Pakistani top leaders on their trips are kept.

Judge Muhammad Bashir of the Islamabad-based accountability court conducted the hearing of the case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Khan, who is currently jailed at the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since September 26 in the cipher case for allegedly leaking state secrets and violating the laws of the country, had filed a plea for bail in the Toshakhana case filed by the anti-graft watchdog.

After hearing the arguments during Wednesday's proceedings, the judge reserved the verdict on the bail plea and adjourned the hearing till Thursday. Later in the evening, the NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Muzaffar Abbasi told the media that Khan's bail petition in the Toshakhana case was rejected. He said the arrest orders will be implemented, and the anti-corruption watchdog will seek the accused's physical remand on Thursday.

This is a different case from the one filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in which Khan was convicted on August 5 and later granted bail by the Islamabad High Court on August 29. That case was based on the allegation that Khan hid the proceeds from the sale of gifts he received from the Toshakhana (state repository) at cheaper rates.

Earlier in the day, a special court once again indicted Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case for allegedly leaking state secrets and violating the country's laws. Apart from the cipher case and Toshakhana cases, the hearing of a case of insulting the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and using foul language against the Chief Election Commissioner was also held in the high security Adiala Jail.

Khan and former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry are accused in the case. Both the PTI leaders are incarcerated in the Adiala jail in different cases. A four-member ECP panel headed by Nisar Durrani was scheduled to indict the two leaders on contempt charges. Both Khan and Chaudhry were present in the court during the hearing.

At the beginning of the hearing, the court accepted Chaudhry's lawyer's request to postpone the charge sheeting process and adjourned the hearing till December 19. Separately, Khan filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking the recusal of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq from all cases against him, saying that he had a "deep loss of faith" in the judge's ability to do justice.

"This loss of justice is the consequence of a long line of events and circumstances spanning at least the entire period," he said in the petition. Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. More than 150 cases have been registered against him since his ouster from power.