ISLAMABAD  -  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Monday filed another appeal before the Supreme Court seeking to stop his trial in the Toshakhana crim­inal case. 

The PTI chief stated in his plea that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had not stopped the low­er court from proceeding in the criminal case while continued hearing his appeals. Once the tri­al was completed then his ap­peals in the high court would be­come ineffective, he said, adding that the high court should have is­sued an order regarding rejection or acceptance of his request for a stay order. The PTI chief's legal team also filed a miscellaneous application seeking to fix the said case for hearing on August 1.

Also, a lower court in Islam­abad on Monday rejected a re­quest to postpone recording of the statement of PTI chair­man under Section-342 in the Toshakhana criminal case and summoned him again on Tuesday. Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamayun Dilawar, hearing the case, ob­served that the PTI chief and his lawyer had disappointed the court as the purpose of such applications was to de­lay the trial. It was the third consecutive date fixed by the court to record the statement of the accused, who, however, requested to postpone it. The former prime minister, who appeared before the court along with his lawyer Kha­waja Haris, prayed for more time for recording his state­ment. The judge remarked that as per the defence law­yer the statement could not be prepared due to the Ashu­ra holidays. The PTI chairman had already been given suffi­cient time in that regard. The defence lawyer’s stance that the court was running the tri­al in a fast way, was also not fair, he added. Khawaja Haris argued that it was an impres­sion that the sessions court wanted to conclude the trial early so that their appeals in high court would become in­effective. The court itself had appointed him as a represen­tative of PTI chief and testi­fied the witnesses, while the accused should have right to appoint his representative himself, he added. The lawyer said they had challenged the trial court’s decisions before the high court and his client required some time before recording his statement un­der Section-342. The counsel for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Amjad Per­vaiz, said five appeals were pending with the high court, which only aimed at getting a stay order against the trial. The accused had requested a stay order to the top court but his case was dismissed, he said, adding the trial court could continue the proceed­ings. The lawyer said that for the first time an objec­tion had been raised against the sessions court after the indictment. They should ap­proach the high court and prove that the indictment was wrong, he added.