Islamabad: Former PM Imran Khan has challenged his conviction in cipher and Toshakhana cases.
The PTI founder, through Barrister Ali Zafar, filed separate petitions before the Islamabad High Court against his sentences in the Toshakhana and cipher cases.
The Toshakhana plea made the state and the accountability bureau respondents and urged the IHC to “suspend the execution of the conviction and sentence” imposed on Imran.
The petition pertaining to the cipher case made the state and Interior Ministry Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar respondents in the case. It urged the high court to set aside the conviction and sentence and acquit him of the charges. It contended that the trial court passed the judgment in a hasty manner without providing the suspect an opportunity for a fair trial.
Meanwhile, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also challenged his conviction in the cipher case before the IHC.
In his plea — filed through lawyers Ali Bukhari, Taimur Malik and Salman Safdar — Qureshi urged the court to set aside his conviction and acquit him of the charges of making state secrets public.
Last month, a special court formed to hear cases under Special Secret Act handed Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi 10 years jail sentence in cipher case.
Special court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain announced the verdict during the hearing held at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
An accountability court had sentenced Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 14 years imprisonment in the Toshakhana case.
Judge Muhammad Bashir announced the verdict, also disqualifying the former prime minister for 10 years while handing over a fine of Rs1.573 billion — 787 million each — to the couple.
