Toshakhana Case: Lahore High Court To Hear Former Pak PM Imran Khan’s Plea On April 12

A Pakistani court on Saturday fixed April 12 as the date for the much-awaited hearing on the Toshakhana corruption case against ousted prime minister Imran Khan. A five-member bench of the Lahore High Court headed by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan will hear the plea, according to the Dawn newspaper. The petition, filed through Sen­ator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, pleads that the cognisance and exercise of jurisdiction by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) based on an alleged incorrect statement of assets and the subsequent disqualification was unlawful and contrary to the Constitution, the report said. The court will resume the hearing on April 12 and allow both parties in the ongoing case to present their arguments, it said.

Khan, 70, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts, including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana, and selling them for profit. He was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan in October last year for not sharing details of the sales. The election body later filed a complaint with the district court to punish him, under criminal laws, for selling the gifts he had received as prime minister of the country. Khan has vehemently denied those charges. Intense clashes erupted outside the judicial complex in Islamabad on March 18 when Khan arrived from Lahore to attend a much-awaited hearing in the Toshakhana case.

Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote, becoming the first Pakistani prime minister to be voted out by the National Assembly. Since his ouster, he has been demanding snap polls in the country to remove what he termed an "imported government" led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.