ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday deferred the hearing of an appeal of PTI chief Imran Khan against his conviction in the Toshakhana criminal case.
A division bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri conducted hearing of the petition moved by Imran Khan.
Khawaja Haris, Barrister Gohar, Babar Awan, Latif Khosa and Sher Afzal Marwat were among Imran’s counsels who appeared before the court to represent Imran Khan while Advocate Amjad Pervaiz represented the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
During the hearing, ECP lawyer Pervaiz urged more time for preparation and that the hearing be adjourned till August 28. However, Khosa opposed the request, following which the IHC adjourned the hearing till tomorrow.
At the outset of the hearing, Marwat informed the court that Imran’s legal team is still not being allowed to meet Khan at Attock jail. At this, Justice Aamer remarked, “I cannot understand why have you been barred from meeting him.” He added, “I had even said that two to three lawyers may go to meet him and that there should not be a crowd.”
Then, Babar Awan said that even after the court’s order, the jail authorities were not allowing Imran’s lawyers to meet him. The IHC judge said that previously, a jail official had said that they would allow a meeting and that on the next, the reason for not allowing was that lawyers had gone after the meeting timings had ended.
Justice Aamer said that the case record was sought after issuing a notice on the appeal and asked if the record was available with the court. To this, the ECP lawyer informed the court that he had not been able to secure the verified case record yet. He requested the court to grant him appropriate time to prepare for the case. At this juncture, Latif Khosa argued that they were not even given the right to defend or were heard. There was great haste at that time. He also opposed giving the ECP lawyer further time and urged the court to decide today on the plea seeking Imran’s release on bail.
He requested the court to approve the plea seeking suspension of Imran’s sentence as Imran was in jail currently and was not being provided with any facilities.