Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had a major below on Wednesday after the Supreme Court (SC) turned down his petition seeking to halt the trial court’s proceedings in the Toshakhana case.
Former prime minister Imran Khan approached the top court after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) denied him relief.
Last year, on October 21, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified the former prime minister in the Toshakhana reference under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution for providing “false statements and incorrect declarations.”
Despite his denial of any misdeclaration of gifts, a trial court in May of this year rejected Imran Khan’s petition challenging the reference’s maintainability. The court went on to indict the PTI chief.
Seeking redress, Imran Khan then approached the IHC, which ordered a re-examination of the case by the trial court within seven days.
Following the IHC’s order, the trial court upheld the ECP’s petition’s maintainability against Imran Khan on July 8 and continued proceedings against the former premier. Faced with this development, he turned to the apex court for relief.
However, during today’s hearing, Justice Yahya Afridi of the two-member SC bench asserted that the Supreme Court would not intervene in the trial court’s matters concerning the Toshakhana case. Imran Khan’s lawyer, Khawaja Haris, informed the court that there were multiple pending petitions in the IHC, including issues related to the trial court’s jurisdiction and the transfer of the Toshakhana case.
Justice Afridi directed the IHC to hear all of Imran Khan’s pending petitions together, emphasizing that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the plea when related petitions were still under consideration in the IHC.
