A prohibition has been placed on Imran Khan, the former prime minister, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, by an accountability court in Islamabad through which the two are barred from commenting on the state institutions and its officials, is reported by The Express Tribune. Judge Judicial Magistrate Basir Javed Rana gave the order during the proceeding in which the petition was seeking a just trial.
The court order not only mandates the media to stop transmitting inciting statements that target the state organs and their officers but also instructs the media to observe ethics in the service. The challenging order mentions the fact that Khans, the PTI leader, has made offensive pronouncements addressed to the senior heads of state structures, including the army, the judges, and the army head.
The tribunal underscored the fact that such occurrences pose a twofold problem of damage to the dignity of justice and of unpleasant proceedings. As a result, prosecution, accused, and denied counsels were told to avoid emotive statements and political inclinations that could muddy or mess up the court’s peace and dignity.
Imran Khan – who served as the prime minister from 2018 to 2022 – is the one in the box who is currently facing trial in several cases. Significantly, both of them were sentenced 14-year prison terms for housebreaking the state gifts’ toilet.
The legal issues with Khan took a serious turn when he was jailed and put behind bars right after a sentence was handed to him by the Election Commission for a period of three months. It was for mis-declaring assets in his return (capital) from the sale of a gift worth PKR 140 million rupees (USD 501,000) when he was in office. The following happened in the case when, in January, both Khan were sentenced to 14 years in jail after a different anti-corruption watchdog disclosure that Khan and Bushra Bibi illegally disposed of gifts and other properties, and this led to the prosecution of the case.
The existing litigations and interfering orders by courts indicate the uncertain and hostile environment of Pakistani politics, where eminent political figures like Imran Khan walk the fine line of holding them accountable and proper governance.
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