A sessions court in Islamabad on Thursday accepted PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s plea for personal exemption from the Toshakhana case hearing, ordering his appearance before the court tomorrow (Friday).

The court granted an exemption to the former premier after his counsel Gohar Ali Khan told Additional District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar that his client was due to appear before the Lahore High Court and requested the court to fix any date for hearing after July 10.

Despite the request for extended exemption, the court granted PTI chief Imran Khan a day-long exemption while instructing his counsel to ensure the former prime minister’s presence in court the following day.

The sessions court took up the case today a couple of days after the Islamabad High Chief Justice Aamer Farooq overturned the ruling of the local court against Imran’s challenge to the maintainability of the Toshakhana case and remanded the case back to the trial court to re-examine the matter within seven days.

The IHC chief justice also asked the sessions court to keep in view eight legal questions he framed to decide maintainability of the reference, based on an ECP complaint for concealing state gifts.

The questions included “whether the complaint has been filed on behalf of ECP by a duly authorised person”, “whether the decision of ECP dated 21.10.2022 is a valid authorisation to any officer of ECP to file a complaint”, “whether the question of authorisation is a question of fact and evidence and can be ratified subsequently during course of proceedings.”

The other questions framed for the trial court judge are related to technicalities.

In his verdict, the IHC chief justice had observed that the trial court judge did not address these questions and dealt with this case in a “very cursory and shoddy manner”.

The hearing

At the outset of the hearing, Gohar, Imran’s counsel, expressed his surprise at the case being fixed for today, saying it was originally scheduled for July 8. “We were not aware that the case has been fixed today,” he said.

The judge referred to PTI lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat’s earlier remarks that Khawaja Haris was also supposed to appear. However, Gohar clarified that he was representing Haris in court today.

The judge questioned the lack of coordination between the two counsels. He stated that although he could grant exemptions from appearance on July 7 and 8 also, he emphasised the need to reach a decision in the case by July 10 and asked the counsel to present arguments.

During the proceedings, Amjad Parvez, the lawyer representing the Election Commission of Pakistan, highlighted that the PTI chief had already “enjoyed” a 45-day stay granted by the IHC. He noted that they were now back to where they started seven months ago.

Following the arguments, the judge adjourned the hearing and issued a directive for both Imran and his counsel, Khawaja Haris, to appear before the court tomorrow.

Toshakhana case

The case, filed by ruling party lawmakers, is based on a reference filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The reference alleges that Imran had “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana — a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept — during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.

Imran has faced a number of legal issues over his retention of gifts. The issue also led to his disqualification by the ECP.

On October 21, 2022 the ECP concluded that the former premier had indeed made “false statements and incorrect declarations” regarding the gifts.

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries. According to Toshakhana rules, gifts/presents and other such materials received by persons to whom these rules apply shall be reported to the Cabinet Division.

The watchdog’s order had said Imran stood disqualified under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution.

Subsequently, the ECP had approached the Islamabad sessions court with a copy of the reference, seeking proceedings against Imran under criminal law for allegedly misleading officials about the gifts he received from foreign dignitaries during his tenure as the prime minister.