Imran Khan: Jailed Pakistani ex-PM fights graft conviction

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday appealed against his three-year sentence on corruption charges, his lawyers said.

Naeem Haider Panjutha, a spokesman for Khan's legal team, said the Islamabad High Court will hear the case on Wednesday.

Imran Khan convicted in graft case

Khan was arrested on charges of concealing that he received state gifts during his tenure as prime minister. He assumed office in 2018 and was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022.

The former prime minister, who leads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, has denied the charges.

Panjutha said that Khan was "aggrieved and dissatisfied," and had appealed for the high court to "set aside" the trial court's conviction.

Under Pakistani law, no convicted person is eligible to run in elections or hold public office. If the conviction is overturned by the high court, he will be allowed to participate in general elections set for later this year.

Imran Khan kept in small jail cell

On Monday, Khan's legal team said that the former premier was being kept in a small jail cell with an open toilet and requested better facilities.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Khan had been a proponent of uniformity in prisons and keeping all inmates in the same conditions.  

"As far as the open washrooms, the jails have got only open washrooms, there are no separate washrooms," the minister told the Geo News TV broadcaster on Tuesday. Sanaullah said that when he was imprisoned himself under Khan's government, his jail cell also had an open toilet.

Sanaullah was arrested in late 2019 and spent several months in jail on drug trafficking charges, which he argues were fabricated by Khan's government.

The minister said Khan could file an application to be kept apart from ordinary inmates.

"Whatever the court decides, it will be implemented," he said. "If he wants to have meals from home, he should seek permission from court."

sdi/wd (Reuters, AP)