Toshakhana, Al-Qadir Trust cases: IHC rejects IK’s plea seeking stay order against jail trial

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday rejected the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s plea seeking a stay order against his jail trial in the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases.

A division bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, on Monday, heard Imran’s petitions against his jail trial notification in Toshakhana and Al-Qadir cases. He filed the petitions through his counsel Sardar Latif Khosaadvocate and cited the chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and others as respondents in the case.

During the hearing, Justice Aamer said that any flaw in the trial against the former prime minister will be rectified. PTI’s counsel Shoaib Shaheen advocate informed the court that the jail trial of the NAB cases is being conducted on a daily basis and 11 witnesses have recorded their statements.

Shaheen urged the court to issue a stay order on the jail trials until the next hearing. However, the IHC chief justice said that any further complaint would be heard at the next hearing and the federal government’s notification regarding the jail trial will be examined if it is per the law or not.

Shaheen requested the court to ask the additional attorney general to provide him a copy of the federal government’s notification issued for Imran’s jail trial.

Later, the bench deferred the hearing of the case till January 23 (Tuesday) for further proceedings in this matter.

Imran’s petition stated that the notifications of jail trials in the cases, issued on November 14 and 28 respectively, were unlawful and malicious. He prayed to the court that the jail trial notifications be nullified and urged the court to issue a stay order to halt the proceedings.

Previously, the bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and secretary interior after declaring his pleas “admissible”. The court also sought a reply from the respondents by January 22.

Through the instant petition, the petitioner Imran impugned the notification dated 28.11.2023 issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, according to which, the federal government had accorded approval that the “Accountability Court concerned” shall sit and conduct trial of the petitioner and others in Central Prison, Adiala Rawalpindi with reference to the case regarding misuse of authority and misappropriation/illegal sale of gifted State assets, etc under Section 16(b) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024