Pakistan’s Judicial System Has Failed, Don’t Know if Imran Khan Will Get Legal Relief: Defence Expert K P Fabian

Reacting to Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's arrest, Defence Expert K P Fabian on Sunday said Pakistan’s judicial system has failed.

“We do not know whether Imran Khan will get any legal relief. It is true that in the past the Supreme Court had sort of stood by him. But whether it will now stand or not, we have to wait and see,” Fabian said on Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party filing a petition in the Lahore High Court against the arrest of party chief Imran Khan.

The defence expert said: “The larger picture is Pakistan judicial system has failed because it was the Islamabad District Court that was trying Imran Khan and the High Court had instructed the District Court to halt the proceedings. So, the district court went against the order of the high court.”

Fabian further said that: “This happened on a Saturday deliberately, without leaving any time for Imran Khan's party to go to the High Court or to the Supreme Court. Now of course, as you have said correctly, they said they are going to the Supreme Court. But how the Supreme Court, which has till now shown some guts will continue to show the guts, we don't know."

He said that it is “important for us to recognize that Pakistan's democracy has declined or almost disappeared.”

This comes after PTI chief Imran Khan was convicted and arrested in the Toshakhana case after a district and sessions court in Islamabad found him guilty of selling state gifts in violation of laws.

Khan is accused of misusing his position as prime minister to sell state gifts worth more than Rs 140 million (USD 490,000) that he received from foreign dignitaries during visits abroad.

Meanwhile, an eminent lawyer of the Pakistan Supreme Court, Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta has said Imran Khan can no longer retain the post of PTI chief after his conviction in the Toshakhana case, Geo News reported citing The News.

The senior lawyer said that the conviction has sealed Khan's fate as the party chairman, as per a judgment by the SC on a constitutional petition filed by PTI itself in the past.

“He will not be able to maintain his position as the chairman of his political party due to his involvement. Imran Khan’s status as PTI chairman has ended automatically in the light of the Supreme Court decision in PLD 366/2018 (Zulfiqar Ahmad Bhutta, PTI, Pakistan Peoples Party, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, Jamaat-e-Islami) etc. vs. Federation of Pakistan case),” Geo News quoted the lawyer as saying.

He further said that he had filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution in the Supreme Court after the conviction of former PM Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case.

 (ANI)