Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to 14 years in jail in the infamous Toshakhana case which relates to illegal sale of state gifts by Khan during his term in office. The sentence was issued by an Islamabad court and also prohibits both Imran Khan and his wife from holding any public office for the next 10 years besides imposing a fine of PKR 787 million on each.
The verdict comes just a day after Khan along with his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) senior leader Mahmood Qureshi was handed over a 10 year jail term in the Cipher case where he is accused of divulging state secrets.
What is the Toshakhana case?
Toshakhana basically refers to the country’s treasury where all the state gifts received by public officials are kept. As per Pakistan’s rules all the gifts and expensive items received by officials have to be first deposited in the Toshakhana and for keeping any of these gifts costing over PKR 30,000 for themselves officials have to pay a certain amount.
It has been alleged that Imran Khan and his wife did not disclose adequate information about the gifts they received and also sold many of these gifts illegally to other parties in Dubai. The matter first came to limelight in August 2022 when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) filed a case against Khan.
These gifts are believed to amount to around Rs.140 million and include many expensive items like Rolex watches.
What is the Cipher case?
The ‘Cipher’ was a confidential diplomatic document recording details of a conversation that took place between Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. Asad Majeed Khan and Donal Lu, America’s assistant secretary of state after Imran Khan’s visit to Russia following its attack on Ukraine. It includes Lu’s reservations about Khan’s Russia visit and also his resentment towards Pakistan’s neutral stance on the Ukraine war.
This document was sent by the ambassador to Khan, who has been accused of flagging it publicly during a rally, thereby revealing information that was supposed to be kept intimate. Khan, however, has dismissed the claims ever since.
Source: The Economic Times
Other cases against the Former PM
Imran Khan is currently serving a three year prison term at the Rawalpindi jail in a corruption case. In total there are around 150 cases pending against him which include charges ranging from terrorism, contempt of court to instigating violence.
There are also charges that he and his wife accepted a piece of land worth around $25 million as bribe from a property dealer in the garb of donating it to a charitable trust Al-Qadir, owned by Khan and his wife themselves.
Conclusion
As a result of these convictions Imran Khan has been barred by Pakistan’s Election Commission (ECP) from contesting the February 8 elections. However, his supporters and party leaders continue to assert that the legal cases against the leader are politically motivated and are meant to deliberately keep him away from the elections. The two big cases coming back to back at this juncture are therefore crucial in determining how the political saga unfolds in Pakistan. The leader, nevertheless, continues to enjoy immense popularity and mass following and hence, remains a formidable force in the country’s national politics. The matter becomes even more significant as the elections come at a time when the country is struggling with severe economic crises which no party has been able to successfully manage including Khan’s successor Shehbaz Sharif led PML-N government.
