Islamabad [Pakistan], January 20 : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to challenge the verdict of Al-Qadir Trust case in the high court on Tuesday, Dawn reported.
In a statement, PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqqas Akram said that the party will file an appeal in the high court at the earliest, in order to quash the ruling and correct the egregious miscarriage of justice.
PTI's decision comes after an accountability court in Rawalpindi sentenced Imran Khan to 14 years in prison and Bushra Bibi to 7 years in the 190 million pound Al-Qadir Trust case. After the verdict, Imran Khan's wife was arrested in the court, according to Dawn report.
In addition, Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were asked to pay a fine of Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 1 million and PKR 500,000 respectively. Failure to pay the fines would result in additional six months jail time for Khan and three months for his wife.
He expressed confidence that the names of PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, would be cleared in the first hearing as the decision was a "blatant travesty of justice, driven by political motivations and fabricated charges."
Akram expressed hope that the court would order the immediate release of Khan, as the decision was a grave injustice and a mockery of Pakistan's judicial system. He said that Imran Khan has committed no wrongdoing and has refused to compromise his principles and decided to fight his over 200 legal cases.
Sheikh Waqqas Akram said that the PTI founder wants to clear his name through the judicial process rather than resorting to deals as he believed in the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and demcracy. He said that "power usurpers' arm-twisting tactics" would ultimately fail, as they had in the past.
He stressed that it would be better to accept the ground reality and release all political prisoners, including Imran Khan and his wife, in addition to formation of judicial commission which includes senior supreme court judges to probe the May 9 and November 26 incidents, as per the Dawn report.
On Sunday, the PTI announced its intention to challenge the decision in the 190 million pound Al-Qadir Trust case in the high court on Tuesday. PTI leader Salman Akram said that Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N)-led government misinterpreted the funds, claiming they were to be deposited into property tycoon Malik Riaz's account and not given to the state. In addition, Imran Khan-founded party has decided to continue dialogue at different levels, including with the government and the powers that be.
In December 2023, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had registered a corruption case against Imran Khan and seven others, including his wife, in relation to the Al-Qadir University Trust, Dawn reported.
The case filed by NAB alleged that Imran Khan, who is currently in prison, played a "pivotal role in the illicit transfer of funds meant for the state of Pakistan into an account designated for the payment of land by Bahria Town, Karachi." It claimed that despite given multiple opportunities to share information, the accused intentionally did not provide information on one pretext or another.
The suspects in the case include property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar, and Zulfi Bukhari. However, instead of joining the investigation, they absconded and were subsequently declared proclaimed offenders (PO), Dawn reported.
Bushra Bibi's close friend Farhat Shahzadi and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, a legal expert for the PTI government's Assets Recovery Unit, were also declared POs. Subsequently, the properties of all six accused had been frozen. According to the case, Riaz's son transferred 240 kanals of land to Shahzadi, while Bukhari obtained land under a trust, which NAB stated did not exist at the time of the transfer. According to the prosecution, the trust was formed only after the adjustment of 190 million pound, raising doubts regarding its purpose and legitimacy.
In July 2024, Pervez Khattak, a PTI leader back then who left the party in 2023 after the May 9 riots, said in court, that he also attended the meeting in December 2019, where then-accountability adviser Mirza Shahzad Akbar presented a confidential deed in a sealed envelope for cabinet approval. Khattak said that when he asked details regarding the document, Akbar said that it was an agreement between the Pakistani government and UK's National Crime Agency for the refund of crime proceeds, as per the report.
Days later, Imran Khan's then-principal secretary, Azam Khan, testified that Akbar brought a note to ask for Imran Khan's approval to present the confidential deed in the cabinet meeting. Pakistan's then-minister of defence production, Zubaida Jalal, in the court, said that ministers were "kept in the dark" on the transfer of "crime proceeds" to Malik Riaz.