The Supreme Court on Saturday raised objections to an appeal filed by former prime minister Imran Khan on suspending his conviction in the Toshakhana case until the final judgement on his appeal,, pending before the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The court subsequently returned the appeal on the grounds that it had been filed with incomplete documents and said that Imran Khan could refile his appeal, along with all relevant documents, by January 6.
The IHC has already rejected Imran Khan's application in which he sought the suspension of his conviction awarded in the Toshakhana case by the trial court.
Following the Supreme Court's order on Friday to grant Imran Khan and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi bail, the former prime minister and PTI founder filed an appeal challenging IHC's December 11 order. Imran filed the petition through his counsel, Sardar Latif Khosa.
In the appeal, Imran contended that besides alleged mala fide intentions of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is conspicuously ascertainable from the very complaint and consequential illegal trial, proceedings of which have been held corum non-judice (not before a judge).
It added that these proceedings were conducted in haste to disqualify Imran Khan from contesting in elections for five years, notwithstanding the fact that conviction/sentence had not attained finality at that time.
"The animosity against the petitioner was not simply confined to getting his conviction and disqualification from contesting elections only, but attempts are being made to take away the symbol of PTI as well and throw it out of the arena of general elections," it was argued.
"Being the largest party in Pakistan, the entire leadership of PTI is either incarcerated or amongst the missing persons beside hundreds of false cases registered against loyalists resulting in incarceration and unending ordeal," the petition claimed.
"Yet despite all the repressive, fascist acts of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government and its successor caretakers, the Gallup poll recently released and trumped in the media reflect the overwhelming popularity of petitioner (Imran Khan) and his party."