Imran Khan was arrested hours after the court order and imprisoned in notorious Attock Jail. He is in solitary confinement and not allowed to meet anybody, even to his attorneys.
Imran Khan's attorneys have filed an appeal against his sentence with the Islamabad High Court. However, Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Amer Farooq is delaying hearing of the appeal.
Tellingly, Imran Khan doesn't expect fair and impartial trial by Justice Farooq. He asked Justice Farooq to recuse himself from the case. Also the PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan called for the chief justice to recuse himself from the case. "Those who violate the justice system in every conceivable way are accorded unwarranted relief and those who are the victims of wanton state oppression and suppression are denied it," he said in a post on social media platform X.
Not surprisingly, Pakistan ranks 129 out of 140 in Rule of Law Index of 2022, according to World Justice Project. Regionally, Pakistan ranks 5th out of 6 countries in South Asia. The region's top performer is Nepal (ranked 69th out of 140 globally), followed by Sri Lanka and India. The three countries with the lowest scores in the region are Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (138th globally).
Pakistan's judiciary has always played a dubious role in Pakistan's politics and validated army rules by General Ayub Khan, General Ziaul Haq and General Parwez Musharraf on the basis of the doctrine of necessity. In 1954, Chief Justice Muhammad Munir was the first Chief Justice who used the doctrine of necessity to validate the extra-constitutional use of emergency powers by Governor General, Ghulam Mohammad.
The latest example of Pakistan judiciary's collaboration with the army is Pakistan Supreme Court's decision to support removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan when the then Army Chief General Bajwa manipulated to a vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan.
On April 7, 2022, the Supreme Court of Pakistan opened at midnight to rule that the blocking of a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan and the subsequent dissolution of parliament was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also ordered the country's parliament be reconvened on April 9 in order to proceed with the no-confidence vote.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
