Just a week before the Feb 8 elections, Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both handed a 14-year sentence on charges of unlawfully selling state gifts.

Khan remains in jail after multiple other sentences were imposed on the ex-cricket star ahead of the national polls, which also disqualified him from holding any public office for 10 years.

The Islamabad High Court said that the couple’s sentence will remain suspended until a final decision on the conviction which will be taken up for arguments and evidence as a main petition after Eid holidays, the party said in a statement.

Khan and his party say the legal cases against him were based on made-up charges to keep him out of politics at the behest of the country’s powerful army after he had fallen out with the military’s generals. The army denies the accusation.