The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a series of petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan challenging mainly the trial in Toshakhana case.
The petitions presented to the court included an application by the former premier against the admissibility of a complaint seeking criminal proceedings on allegations of concealing Toshakhana gifts.
Another petition requested the transfer of the case to a different trial court, and a third petition, filed earlier on the same day, sought the right to a defense in the ongoing case.
Imran Khan filed these applications in the IHC after a trial court declared the complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as maintainable last month. The charges were formally framed against the PTI chief on May 10.
However, the proceedings were halted when IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq intervened, directing Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar to review the matter in light of eight legal questions to determine the admissibility of the Toshakhana reference.
The crucial legal questions included determining whether the complaint was appropriately filed on behalf of the ECP by an authorized representative and if the ECP’s decision on October 21, 2022, was a valid authorization for an ECP officer to lodge the complaint. Additionally, the court considered whether the issue of authorization was a matter of fact and evidence, which could be validated later during the course of the proceedings.
However, Imran Khan’s counsel, Khawaja Haris, did not appear before the court to present arguments in three consecutive hearings when the case was re-examined by the sessions judge. On July 9, ADSJ Dilawar ruled that the reference against Imran Khan was maintainable, leading to the resumption of the trial proceedings and the summoning of witnesses for testimonies.
Yesterday, Judge Dilawar concluded that Imran Khan had failed to establish the relevance of his witnesses in court and advised the defense counsel to finalize their arguments; otherwise, the court would reserve judgment on the complaint.
Today, the Islamabad High Court heard the arguments presented by Imran Khan’s lawyers, Khawaja Haris and Gohar Khan, along with the stance of the ECP counsel, Amjad Pervaiz. The IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq then reserved the verdict on the petitions and announced that the judgment would be delivered tomorrow, on Friday.
