The staying by the Islamabad High Court of the cipher case trial of PTI chief Imran Khan did not really get him off the hook, because the arrest executed upon him in two NAB cases ensured that he would remain behind bars for the foreseeable future, and that he would be tried in one of those cases. One case involves his taking gifts from the Tosha Khana, most notably the watches gifted by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, but it is the second which carries the most risk for him, as it is supposed to be an ‘open-and-shut’ case, where he is supposed to have allowed the real estate tycoon, Malik Riaz, to adjust £190 million, received from the UK’s National Crime Agency, to pay the Supreme Court part of the fine it had imposed on him. Mr Khan is accused of having received land from Mr Malik on which he established Al-Qadir University.
This is not the limit of Mr Khan’s legal troubles. There are a slew of cases related to the May 9 attacks on military installations and memorials in which he is nominated, and in which the trials are yet to begin. Apparently Mr Khan, along with several hundred PTI workers, have benefitted from the Supreme Court decision prohibiting the trial of civilians by military courts, but that judgement may not attain finality until an appeal is preferred by the federal government, which has expressed the intention of appealing the judgement. Barring some sort of miracle, Mr Khan does not seem likely to get out of them any time very soon.
With the general election finally set for February 8, it would appear that Mr Khan will remain involved in the turmoil of being the defendant in numerous cases for some time to come, and even if he were to stave off conviction in all of them, he would face great difficulty in making campaign appearances. This would be particularly difficult for the PTI, which is relying more heavily than most parties on the vote-getting ability of its leader, with Mr Khan either unable to campaign, or forced to juggle campaigning with appearing in court. His legal troubles appear too big a barrier for them all to go away by election day.
