ISLAMABAD: The incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday demanded an open trial of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Lt General Faiz Hameed (retired), who was arrested earlier this month in connection with a housing scheme scam.
“I demand an open trial of Hameed if he indeed is the mastermind of ‘May 9’ and media should be permitted to cover the court proceedings,” Khan said while talking to reporters informally at Adiala Jail after the hearing of the Al-Qadir Trust case against him and his wife Bushra Bibi.
He claimed that ‘drama’ of the arrest of the ex-spymaster was played as Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa is going to retire.
The open trial of Hameed will expose the conspiracy of ‘regime change’ and ‘May 9’, he said, adding that if I too have committed treason then also conduct my open trial.
Khan said that all this was being done so fast as there was no substance in the cases against him in civil courts.
When he was asked if he was demanding an open trial of Hameed from the federal government or the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), he said that I was demanding an open trial of Hameed from the COAS.
Responding to a question that there is an allegation against Hameed that he had planned the May 9 conspiracy, as well as, set targets for attacks on army installations and you (Khan) had executed it, the PTI founding chairman said that whoever ordered my ‘abduction’ he had also prepared the plan of May 9 conspiracy.
To a question that as per reports he was in contact with Hameed from jail and outside jail, he said that he remained in contact with Hameed till he was the DG ISI and he was the Prime Minister. I neither have any contact with Hameed after his retirement nor has any relations, he said.
When he was asked that who had ordered his arrest, he said that those who control Rangers they had ordered his arrest. Being a former prime minister he knows who controls Rangers, Khan said, when he was asked who is controlling Rangers. He said that a “badshah” and “super king” had ordered his arrest. ‘May 9’ is not a national security issue but a local matter, he claimed, adding that this is not a military’s internal matter but this is a matter of ‘kidnapping’ of the head of the country’s big political party head and former premier.
He said that the Al-Qadir Trust reference was ended after the investigation officer of NAB in a statement said that Malik Riaz’s money was not ‘stolen money’. We had discussed the same issue in the cabinet meeting if the money was not stolen money then it should be brought to Pakistan, he said, adding that we were told by Malik Riaz not to make the deal with the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) public; therefore, we kept the deal secret.
Khan said that Malik Riaz had told his former advisor Shahzad Akbar that the money was not stolen or money laundering money. Keeping the deal between Malik Riaz and NCA secret was a compulsion but the NAB and the FIA can open it, he said, adding that it was the unanimous decision of the federal cabinet to keep the deal secret.
Earlier, the Accountability Court judge, Nasir Javed Rana, while hearing the £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) scam commonly known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, adjourned the proceedings of the case till August 23 due to the non-availability of Khan and his wife’s lawyers.
At the start of the hearing, Khan’s lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar requested the court to adjourn the case as the main counsel of this case is busy in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, while objecting to the defence’s request, said that the defence counsels have failed for eight times to cross examine the investigation officer (IO) of the case.
Defence counsels are using delaying tactics, he said, adding that the IHC has ordered to continue trial of the case. If a witness does not cross-examine thrice, then the defence side loses his right, he said.
He requested the court to bind the defence counsel to complete cross-examination of the witness.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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