Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan disqualified for 5 years by Election Commission

Pakistan’s Election Commission has disqualified former Prime Minister Imran Khan from holding any political office for five years in the Toshakhana case for hiding proceeds from the gifts sale he had received from foreign leaders. The ruling against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was given on October 21, 2022.

The case filed with the ECP seeks disqualification of Imran Khan under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution that suggests disqualification if someone is rendered not truthful.

The lawmakers of the ruling coalition government had filed a case with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in August against former PM of Pakistan Imran Khan, seeking his disqualification “for failing to reveal the proceeds from the sale of gifts that he purchased at a discounted price from the state repository, also called Toshakhana”. The four member bench of the ECP which was headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja, ruled unanimously on Friday that Khan was involved in corruption and has been disqualified as a member of the parliament.

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Asad Umar, Secretary General of Khan’s PTI party, announced that the decision of Election Commission would be challenged in the Islamabad High Court.

Imran Khan had come in to power in 2018 and since then apparently has received expensive gifts from rich Arab rulers during official visits, which were deposited in the Toshakhana. Later he had bought the same gifts at a discounted price according to the relevant laws and then sold them at hefty profits. “The former premier informed the ECP during the hearing that the sale of the gifts that he had procured from the state treasury after paying Rs 21.56 million fetched about Rs 58 million,” as stated by The Hindu.

Established in 1974, the Toshakhana is a department that comes under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries.