‘Undeclared martial law’: Imran Khan tells SC

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan has complained of the “victimisation” as he appeared before the Supreme Court in the NAB amendments case.

The high-profile case was heard by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa-led five-member bench featuring Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Athar Minallah and Azhar Hasan Rizvi on Thursday.

The jailed PTI founder appeared before the court via video link from Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, where has been kept since his conviction in the Toshakhana case last year.

Imran Khan told the bench that undeclared “martial law” had been imposed in the country as he was convicted in a matter of five days so he couldn’t participate in the recent elections.

He was also concerned over SC’s judgment rejecting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s government plea requesting the live steaming of the case.

“You wrote [in the judgment] that I did political point scoring during the last hearing. I did not get it, what political scoring did I resort to,” the PTI founder asked the CJP.

After the arguments, the court has reserved its judgement in the case.

Amendments were made to the National Accountability Bureau laws by the then-Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government in 2022.

The amendment reduced the NAB chairman and prosecutor general terms to three years. It also limited NAB’s jurisdiction to cases involving over Rs500 million, and transferring all pending inquiries, investigations, and trials to the relevant authorities.

Khan challenged the amendments in the top court, claiming that the amendments were made to benefit the influential accused persons and legitimise corruption.