ISLAMABAD: Justice Aamer Farooq of IHC, while setting aside the trial court verdict about the maintainability of Toshakhana Case for criminal proceedings on Friday (4th of August, 2023)(has asked the same forum to decide the matter again after re-hearing.

APP Adds: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the decision of the trial court regarding the admissibility of toshakhana criminal case and remanded the case back to the additional session court for re-hearing.

The court also rejected the appeals seeking to stay the proceeding in toshakhana case and the shifting of case to another court.

The bench also served notices to the respondents on another appeal regarding production of witnesses and seeking to restore the right of defense of the accused.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued the written order regarding the termination of lower court’s verdict pertaining maintainability of the criminal case against the former prime minister.

The court also instructed the trial court to also give answers to the question raised in the appeal while announcing its fresh verdict about the admissibility of the case.

The court rejected the appeal for transfer of the criminal case to another court and said that as per the verdicts of the high courts in similar matters a case could only be shifted to the alternative court on the basis of solid reasons.

The written order said that the petitioner had raised the objection against the trial court judge due to his alleged Facebook posts about the case.

The trial court judge had also rejected the plea seeking to shift the case to another court.

It further said that the ECP’s lawyer was of the view that the Facebook posts associated with the judge were fake. It had been done to damage the repute of the court, he said.

The order said that the additional session judge Hamayun Dilawar had also denied the social media posts associated with his name.

The court directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to conduct inquiry from all the people involved in uploading posts on social media about trial court’s judge without verification.

The court also instructed Imran Khan to ensure that his lawyer would give arguments whenever the trial court would seek final arguments in the criminal case.

Following IHC’s short order, a district and sessions court here has summoned PTI Chief Imran Khan in his personal capacity on Saturday (5th of August, 2023).

It may be recalled that Toshakhana Reference was filed by ECP against Imran Khan and the trial court held that the case was maintainable for criminal proceedings.

APP Adds: A lower court on Friday summoned Chairman PTI Imran Khan along with his lawyers for arguments in a case pertaining the maintainability of the toshakhana case following the orders of Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Additional District and Session Judge Hamayun Dilawar heard the criminal case against former prime minister Imran Khan.

During the course of proceeding, counsel for ECP Amjad Pervaiz argued that all documents were filed by the accused himself after signing it, that’s why there was no question regarding its acceptance.

The said that the gifts received from toshakhana and challan submitted to national assembly were the part of the record.

The lawyer said that the former prime minister and his wife had received a total of 58 gifts, adding that the value of 14 gifts was evaluated more than Rs30,000.

As per the accused they had purchased four gifts against Rs21.6 million, he said, adding that cufflinks, watches, ring and iPhone were included in the gifts.

He said that the gifts were received after payment of 20% price in 2018-19. It had been told that the gifts of jewelry were received by the wife of former prime minister, he said.

The lawyer said that the former prime minister had mentioned no any jewelry in form-B submitted to the ECP, adding that the accused had admitted the facts it in his statement under section-342.

The former prime minister had received five gifts in 2020-21 including Rolex watch, cufflinks, ring, suit, necklace, bracelet and others, he said.

The lawyer said that he couldn’t admit that the former prime minister was not owning any vehicle. What would happened if Imran Khan disclosed jewelry owned by him before public, he asked.

The lawyer said that the former prime minister had declared the value of his three house worth only five lac in last four years.

The PTI chairman had stated that he was no owning any jewelry, he said and concluded his argument.

PTI’s lawyer Asim Baig appeared before the court and adopted the stance that the SC had declared that the trial court couldn’t issue final judgment until their appeal was pending in high court and prayed the court to adjourn the case till the decision of IHC.

The judge asked the lawyer to present order if any regarding the stay into the proceeding. The court said that the attitude of the defense lawyers was unprofessional.

Later, the lawyer told the court that the high court had remanded back the case pertaining the admissibility of the criminal case and instructed it to re-hear it.

However, the court had not issued any stay against the proceeding.

ECP’s counsel also told the judge that the petition pertaining transfer of the case had been rejected by the high court and FIA had been directed to probe into the fake social media posts associated with the name of judge.

The court said that the ECP’s lawyer had already given arguments regarding the maintainability of the case and asked Imran Khan’s counsel to give arguments tomorrow.

Toshakhana Case Is Maintainable, Court

Newspakistan.tv