The Islamabad High Court has granted bail to Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, thereby suspending his three-year prison sentence linked to a case involving state gifts.
Today, a two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court ruled in favor of releasing Imran Khan on bail. The decision comes after Khan’s legal spokesperson, Naeem Haider Panjuta, confirmed that the bench accepted Khan’s appeal.
The conviction of Imran Khan, aged 70, on August 5 stemmed from his failure to disclose gifts received from foreign governments and leaders during his tenure as the prime minister between 2018 and 2022.
Having been confronted with over 100 cases since losing a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022, Khan had been incarcerated in Attock, a city northwest of Islamabad, approximately 88 kilometers (54 miles) away.
Following his imprisonment, the country’s Election Commission imposed a five-year ban on Khan from participating in elections.
The decision of the two-judge bench from the Islamabad High Court arrives shortly after Pakistan’s Supreme Court expressed concerns about the procedural soundness of the earlier verdict.
Earlier in the week, Imran Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), filed an appeal in the High Court, urging authorities to prevent his re-arrest.
Further contributing to his relief, on the previous day, a court in the province of Balochistan dismissed a sedition case against the PTI leader.
