The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has accepted former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s, his wife Bushra Bibi’s, and former Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s appeals against their convictions in the cipher and Toshakhana cases, Dawn reported.
The court has requested that the trial court proceedings’ record be submitted by March 7.
A special court sentenced Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in prison in the cipher case, while Imran Khan and his spouse received 14 years each in prison in the Toshakhana case.
According to Dawn, the appeals were heard by a division bench made up of IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb.
Barristers Syed Ali Zafar and Salman Safdar represented Imran Khan in the cipher case.
Barrister Safdar claimed that there were serious anomalies in the process used to convict the PTI leaders in the cipher case. According to Dawn, he argued that the Special Court (Official Secrets Act) bypassed the law and deprived Imran Khan and Mehmood Qureshi of legal defense options.
According to the appeal, Imran Khan’s arrest and remand hearing were conducted in a “most objectionable, clandestine, and secretive manner” on August 16, last year. The prosecution did not provide the full record, and the judge indicted the PTI leaders hurriedly.
Despite the illegalities, the appeal stated, an IHC bench scrapped the proceeding twice. Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain, however, closed the trial without following complying with the mandatory procedural requirements, it claimed.
The appeal argued that the ex-PM and his legal counsel “extended all the cooperation” to the trial court and did not request a needless adjournment. However, the judge did not secure a fair trial, as “the proceedings were hurried through by the court in breakneck speed for reasons known only to the court itself”. It claimed that the trial was “concluded in less than 20 days”.
While one of the defense counsel failed to appear in court because he needed to rush to Lahore for dental surgery, the court-appointed state counsel for Imran Khan and Mehmood Qureshi despite considerable opposition from PTI leaders.
Both leaders requested the court to call their lead counsel for help during cross-examination, but the trial court declined to wait for him.
The appeal alleged that the cipher case trial was then moved to a “secret room” and completed within a very short span of time.
The IHC division bench also heard applications for seeking the suspension of their sentences while till the final adjudication of the main appeals against their conviction. The bench overruled the objections to the petitions raised by the registrar’s office.
Barrister Zafar claimed in the Toshakhana case that an accountability court convicted the former Prime Minister and his spouse without even allowing them to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.
While issuing notices to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the cipher case and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Toshakhana case, the high court later deferred further proceedings on the appeals and applications till March 7.
Meanwhile, the IHC bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri issued a notice to the NAB on the plea of the PTI founder and his wife’s request for post-arrest bail in the 190 million pound corruption case.
Advocate Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, representing the petitioners, argued that the trial court’s decision to dismiss the petitioners’ bail applications was ‘erroneous’ and asked the IHC panel to accept the pleas.