The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday expressed concerns over delays by the Islamabad High Court in issuing its verdict on an appeal filed by former prime minister and party chairman Imran Khan against his conviction by a trial court in the Toshakhana Case.
This was contained in a statement issued on Monday evening by the PTI after the party said a key meeting of the party's remaining core committee was held.
The statement came hours after the Islamabad High Court, which had previously said it would announce on Monday a verdict in the case of seeking suspension of the Toshakhana sentence, only announced that it was reserving its judgment and would pronounce it on Tuesday. Thereby, it delayed its verdict by at least another 24 hours.
In its statement, PTI asked who wanted to keep the party chairman behind bars without any legal cause?
"The nation bears witness that the state has no legal cause to keep Imran Khan imprisoned either yesterday nor today," the statement read.
With regards to the Toshakhana case and subsequent sentence issued against Imran Khan, the party's core committee said that it was the worst trial conducted, resulting in a 'black' verdict. They added that it had exposed those with a vendetta against the party and its chief.
The party's core committee further accused the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) of trying to delay the matter and of targeting the party chief for political victimisation.
They noted that it was regrettable that the court had allowed the ECP to buy time, waste the court's time and illegally keep Imran Khan in jail and deny him his constitutional rights.
Delay in providing justice is equivalent to the murder of justice, the party said and demanded that those toying with the law and Constitution should immediately stop.
The PTI core committee hoped that Imran Khan's sentence would be suspended without any further conditions or delays and that his release would be ordered.
The party's core committee also expressed concerns over the continued incarceration of PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi as a court-approved another two days of his physical remand in custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Further, the party said that PTI President Chaudhry Parvez Elahi is continually deprived of his constitutional rights.
The party also demanded the immediate release of leaders, including Senator Aun Abbas Bappi, Hassan Niazi and all others who were forcibly abducted or disappeared.
PTI core committee said that it will continue to pursue all legal means to secure the release of its leaders and workers.