IHC adjourns Imran Khan’s plea against Toshakhana verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s petition challenging his conviction in the Toshakhana case, till tomorrow (Friday) 11:30pm after the arguments from defence and prosecution.

Days after a sessions court in the federal capital found the former prime minister guilty of corrupt practices in the case of misdeclaration of state gifts on August 5, the PTI challenged Khan’s conviction and sentence.

Today, the IHC resumed the hearing as per schedule, with Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri on the bench.

At the outset of the hearing, Advocate Latif Khosa appeared as the petitioner’s counsel and informed the court that he will now represent the PTI chairman.

It may be noted that Haris has reportedly parted ways with Khan’s legal team.

While giving arguments, Khosa implored the court to suspend the PTI chief’s conviction on three grounds, one of which he said that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to hear the Toshakhana case.

He claimed that the sessions court did not have the jurisdiction to hear ECP’s appeal.

“It [ECP] should have sorted out the jurisdiction matter first.”

He said that the electoral body could authorise one of its officers to file a complaint.

In this case, the ECP secretary asked the district election commissioner to file a complaint, he added.

The counsel added that ECP did not seek permission before filing a complaint. At this, ECP lawyer Amjad Parvez maintained that the ECP’s permit to file the complaint was on record.

However, Khosa replied that this permission had been given by the election commission secretary, which was not lawful.

The high court sent the petition to the trial court for a new decision, he said, adding that the complaint cannot be sent directly to the sessions judge because it is supposed to be sent to the magistrate first.