Toshakhana verdict

The much-contested Toshakhana case has come full circle. PTI chairman Imran Khan has been convicted and is in jail. The trial court has handed down three-year prison term and a fine of hundred thousand rupees to the former Prime Minister, declaring him guilty of corrupt practices. The case was referred to the trial court by the Election Commission pleading that the PTI chief had filed an “incorrect” declaration of his tax returns. At the same time, the modus operandi of a foreign gift, its purchase and the alleged underrated invoice were at the theatre of a nail-biting debate for months.

While Khan’s legal team avoided contesting the merits of the case during its 40 or so hearings and only focused on technicalities like “lack of jurisdiction” and “bias” on the part of the trial court judge; the rushedup proceedings of the case, denying the defendant to plead his part of contention in an adequate manner as per law, have rendered the sentence open to argument and appeal at higher forums. But as of the close of the day, Khan is behind the bars which literally kick-starts a new phase of politics in a country that is on the verge of general elections, pitching it on the tenterhooks of more instability and chaos. Khan is not the first recipient of a gift from Toshakhana in a tendentious manner.

Thus his conviction in the case – of which there was ample justification – is widely interpreted in the context of his fall from favour with the movers and shakers. PTI is not the only one to suffer from the tendency of slapping contentious cases in a politically weird manner. Earlier, the PML-N, PPP, MQM and many others had bitten dust, and were made to choreograph their political line of action. This is the prime reason that the country is deep in the woods of instability, and a perpetual mistrust among the organs of the state.

Litigations must be vetted as per law, and must be tried on an even-field of decorum and decency. Only then will we be able to come out of the quagmire of our precariousness.