Jailed Pakistani ex-PM Imran Khan challenges corruption conviction

ISLAMABAD, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday appealed his conviction and three-year sentence on corruption charges, his lawyer said, a ruling analysts say is likely to fuel instability. policy.

Naeem Panjutha said the petition to challenge the weekend conviction has been filed in the Islamabad High Court, which will hear the case on Wednesday.

Former cricketer Khan, 70, was jailed on charges of illegally selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan has been at the center of political turmoil since he was ousted as prime minister in a vote of no confidence last year, raising concerns about stability in the nuclear-armed country as it grapples with an economic crisis.

The South Asian nation of 241 million people secured a last-minute $3 billion deal in June with the IMFwhat’s wrong with it sought a consensus on political objectives among all political parties before the general elections scheduled for November.

“Being aggrieved and dissatisfied,” Khan has appealed to the high court to “vacate” the trial court’s order that convicted and sentenced him, according to a copy of the petition posted by Panjutha on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. .

Khan’s legal team says he is in custody abject conditions in a small class C cell in a prison in Attock, near the capital Islamabad, with an open bathroom, when he should qualify for a class B cell with facilities including an attached bathroom, newspapers, books and television.

Home Minister Rana Sanaullah, who spent several months in jail on drug-trafficking charges he said were fabricated during Khan’s tenure, said Khan himself had been an advocate of uniformity in prisons.

“As for open toilets, prisons only have open toilets, there are no separate toilets, and Khan might know that the cells where we were locked up were also the same,” the minister told Geo News TV.

He said Khan could apply to the court not to be kept with common inmates.

“Whatever the court’s decision is, it will be implemented and if you want to eat at home, you have to apply for permission from the court,” he said.

Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Edited by Kim Coghill and Nick Macfie

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