• ECP set to announce verdict in Imran Khan’s Toshakhana case at 2pm.
• At least 1,100 police officials deployed in Red Zone.
• Unauthorised persons not allowed to go near ECP.

ISLAMABAD: Security has been tightened in the federal capital’s Red Zone as the Election Commission of Pakistan is set to announce its verdict in the Toshakhana disqualification reference against PTI Chairman Imran Khan at 2pm today.

At least 1,100 police officials have been deployed in the Red Zone under the command of a senior superintendent of police to control the law and order situation in the area. The officer will be assisted by five superintendents of police, six deputy superintendents of police.

The law enforcement agency will also be assisted by the Frontier Constabulary and paramilitary force Punjab Rangers.

The police officials have vowed that the PTI workers will not be allowed to come near the Election Commission, nor will any unauthorised person be allowed to enter its office.

Geo News reported that the law enforcement agency has been given teargas shells in case the party workers launch a protest.

According to a notice, the ECP has ordered all the relevant parties or their counsels to appear before the commission at its secretariat, situated at Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, in Islamabad.

The ECP had reserved its verdict in the Toshakhana case on September 19 after arguments were completed from both sides. A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, heard the case.

Toshakhana is a word of Persian origin that literally translates into “treasure house”.

Imran Khan’s response 

During the last hearing of the case, which took place on September 19, Khan’s counsel Ali Zafar admitted that his client had sold at least four presents he had received during 2018-19.

“The gifts were sold for Rs58 million and their receipts were enclosed with the income tax returns filed by my client,” the lawyer apprised the ECP.

He maintained that Khan has provided the gifts’ details up to 2021 in the written reply submitted to the election body.

“The ECP conducts scrutiny if the body has doubts on any details but in this case, the election body did not raise any objection,” argued the PTI lawyer.

In 2019-20, Khan received gifts worth Rs1.7 million, the lawyer told the ECP.

An ECP member asked about the source of income for procuring the gifts from the state treasury.

At this, the lawyer said that he will not give the details to the ECP.

The case

In August 2022, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent a reference to the ECP under Articles 62A, 63A, and 223, seeking former prime minister Imran Khan’s disqualification in the light of the Toshakhana scam.

The disqualification reference was filed by Ali Gohar Khan, PML-N’s Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha, and five others.

The 28-page reference identified 52 gift items of Toshakhana received by the former prime minister Khan, violating the law and rules, taken away at nominal prices and most of the gifts were sold in the market, including some precious watches.

The assessed value of the gifts has been put at Rs 142,042,100. The gifts were received between August 2018 and December 2021.

According to PML-N MNA Ranjha, Khan concealed information about the gift of watches by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in his statement of assets submitted in 2018-2019.

This withholding of information is tantamount to lying which, according to Ranjha, is a crime under Section 137. 

He thus said that Khan was no more Sadiq and Ameen and should be slapped with disqualification for life from contesting the election under Article 62(1)(f), Article 2, Article 3 of the Constitution.

Article 62(1)(f) is the same legal instrument that disqualified former PM Nawaz Sharif from contesting elections and led to his removal from power, Ranjha said.