Disqualified, jailed Imran Khan’s nomination papers submitted for Pakistan polls

Lahore: Disqualified and jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday had his nomination papers submitted at Mianwali, his home constituency in Punjab province, for the February 8 general elections.

Khan, the 71-year-old founder of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was convicted in what is known as the Toshakhana corruption case on August 5 this year, a charge that also disqualified him from contesting any elections for five years.

Khan filed a plea in the Islamabad High Court, which turned it down, prompting his party to move the Supreme Court.

The cricketer-turned-politician did get a bail from the apex court but he remains in jail on account of his arrest in two other cases.

On Friday, PTI leader Umar Bodla appeared on behalf of the former prime minister and submitted Khan’s nomination papers for the National Assembly’s NA-89 constituency, according to Geo News.

According to the revised poll schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the prospective candidates could submit their nomination papers by Sunday.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from December 24 to 30.

“Khan’s legal team says that the district court, which sent Khan to jail and had him disqualified, gave a baseless judgment,” Geo News added.

Earlier in the day, in a relief to Khan, Pakistan's Supreme Court approved his and close aide Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s bail in the cipher case related to the alleged leakage of state secrets.

The case is based on the allegation that a diplomatic document sent by the Pakistan embassy in March last year was mishandled by Khan and Qureshi, 67, and they violated the secrecy laws of the country.

Meanwhile, a detailed statement by the PTI on its official handle on platform X expressed gratitude and satisfaction on behalf of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in connection with the bails in the cipher case and said, “With the approval of the guarantees of Founder Chairman Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the false and fake political case like cipher based on malice, and enmity has died.” “The only purpose of this fabricated and baseless case was to get the founder chairman Imran Khan to compromise on the principles and withdraw from the movement for the supremacy of the constitution and law in the country,” it said.

“The ongoing illegal crackdown against Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates across the country before the elections and the shameful attempts to exclude Tehreek-e-Insaf from the elections through state coercion confirm the validity of the position of Imran Khan, founder chairman of Cipher,” it said.

The statement also demanded that Khan and Qureshi be released immediately and “prevented from being arrested in any false case.” Apart from this official statement, the PTI X handle has been tweeting all day multiple videos showing how their candidates have been deprived of filing nomination papers.

In a separate hearing earlier in the day of a petition filed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the Supreme Court also instructed the ECP to address the concerns of the jailed former prime minister’s party about the lack of a level playing field in the upcoming February 8 general elections.

The court summoned Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan and the ECP officials and after hearing the arguments, asked the PTI to submit its complaint to the top polls body on Friday. It also directed the attorney general to facilitate the two sides to address the issue.