Islamabad, Oct. 21: Pakistan’s election commission (ECP), in a unanimous decision, has found former Prime Minister Imran Khan guilty of “corrupt practices” and disqualified him from being a member of parliament.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party immediately rejected Friday’s ruling and called on supporters to take to the streets.

Faisal Fareed Chaudhry, part of the PTI’s legal team, told Al Jazeera they were awaiting the detailed verdict before filing an appeal to the Islamabad High Court. He also said they planned to question the commission’s scope to deliver such a verdict. “We will challenge their jurisdiction, their mandate in issuing this decision,” he said.

The case against Khan was filed in August by a member of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), contending that the former prime minister had bought gifts given by foreign dignitaries from the state gift depository (also called Toshakhana) but did not disclose the assets in declarations submitted to the commission.

Chaudhry called the ECP’s decision “embarrassing” and a “slap in the face” for Pakistan’s people.

“This verdict is not an attack on Imran Khan only. It is an attack on Pakistan’s constitution and its people,” he told reporters.

Khan, who was removed from his office in April through a parliamentary vote of no confidence, has accused the commission of bias, and has singled out its chief, Sikandar Sultan Raja, of prejudice against him and his party.

After the removal of his government, Khan has been holding rallies across the country, demanding early polls. His narrative has won him large swaths of support, as the PTI won big in by-elections which took place in July and October.

The duration of the disqualification was not immediately clear. Kanwar Dilshad, a former federal secretary of the commission, told Al Jazeera that in his opinion, the verdict meant Khan has been “disqualified for time being”.

“My view is that the verdict is valid for this parliamentary session, which will last till August 2023. What it means is he will not be able to sit in assembly, despite winning recent by-polls,” he said.

Dilshad further added that the commission has a broad mandate, which allows the institution to hear a case regarding corrupt practices and send it to trial court in the event of a guilty verdict.-Agencies