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Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan appealed against his conviction and three-year sentence on corruption charges on Tuesday, four days after he was jailed and barred from politics in a case threatening to worsen political uncertainty.

His lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, said the petition, challenging Khan's conviction on charges of selling state gifts unlawfully during his 2018-2022 term as prime minister, had been filed in Islamabad High Court, which will hear the case on Wednesday.

The petition seen by Reuters described the conviction as "without lawful authority, tainted with bias", and said Khan, 70, had not received an adequate hearing.

Noting that the court rejected a list of witnesses for the defence a day before reaching its verdict, it said a conviction without hearing the defence case was a "gross travesty of justice, and a slap in the face of due process and fair trial".

The verdict was also a violation of high court orders which had called for a review of whether the case involved genuine criminal charges before coming to the final ruling, the petition said.

The court had expedited the trial after Khan refused to attend hearings, defying repeated summonses and arrest warrants.

INSTABILITY

Khan has been at the heart of political turmoil since he was ousted as prime minister in a vote of no confidence last year, raising concern about stability in the nuclear-armed country as it grapples with an economic crisis.

With Khan out of the political picture for now, all eyes should be turning to the upcoming election, South Asia institute director at Washington-based The Wilson Center Michael Kugelman told Reuters.

Any delay in the election would fuel more anger among Pakistan's public and inject more uncertainty into the political environment, he said.

"That volatility and uncertainty could have implications for political stability but also the economy, if foreign investors and donors become reluctant to deploy more capital in such an environment," he said.

In June Pakistan secured a last-gasp $3 billion deal with the IMF, which has sought a consensus on policy objectives among all political parties ahead of general elections due by November.

Khan's legal team says he is being kept in abject conditions in a small, so-called C-class cell in a prison in Attock, near the capital Islamabad, with an open toilet, when he should qualify for a B-class cell with facilities including an attached washroom, newspapers, books and TV.

A request had been filed on his behalf for an A-class cell all the facilities he was entitled to.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who spent several months in jail on drug trafficking charges he says were fabricated during Khan's tenure, said that Khan himself had been a proponent of uniformity in prisons.

"As far as the open washrooms, the jails have got only open washrooms, there are no separate washrooms, and it could be in Khan's knowledge that the cells where we were kept they were also the same," the minister told Geo News TV.

He said Khan could file an application in court that he shouldn't be kept with ordinary inmates.

"Whatever the court decides, it will be implemented and if he wants to have meals from home, he should seek a permission from court," he said. (Reuters)