ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday held the appeals of former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi against conviction in the cipher case maintainable and invited the prosecution and defence counsel to advance arguments from Monday.

An IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb resumed the hearing on the appeals against Mr Khan and Mr Qureshi’s convictions and 10-year sentences each in the cipher case.

During the previous hearing, special prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah raised objections to the maintainability of Mr Khan and Mr Qureshi’s appeals.

Mr Shah pointed out that the Official Secrets Act was promulgated in 1923 and did not provide the right of appeal except during the trial proceeding.

He argued that the conviction should be deemed final because the trial court had convicted the two leaders, and there was no provision for the right of appeal.

However, Barrister Salman Safdar, Mr Khan’s counsel, argued that if the law didn’t provide the right of appeal against conviction, the court would take up this as the case of first impression.

He said the former prime minister and the former foreign minister were convicted under the law used to prosecute the suspects of espionage.

Mr Safdar argued that the superior courts had held in several cases that the convict could not be remedy-less, adding that the high treason case didn’t provide the right of appeal but the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1976, provided that the forum of appeal was the Supreme Court.

The bench finally concluded that the appeals were maintainable and decided to hear the case on merits.

Imran fears horse-trading

Meanwhile, Imran Khan voiced concerns over potential horse-trading in the upcoming Senate elections and vowed to approach the Supreme Court against the alleged rigging in the general elections.

Talking to the media persons after a hearing in the £190 million corruption reference — in which Mr Khan and his spouse, Bushra Bibi, are being tried by the accountability court of Islamabad — the former premier said the votes of parliamentarians would be bought in the upcoming election of the upper house.

He described the elections as bogus and said that they damaged the reputation of the institutions.

He said that even though the PTI was not allowed to run its election campaign, the citizens reacted with the power of votes. How­ever, he said, the people’s mandate was not acknowledged but was stolen.

Mr Khan said the PTI would continue peaceful protests against the “rigged elections” and warned that Pakistan would face the same situation that Sri Lanka witnessed after default.

Accountability court proceeding

During the hearing of the £190m corruption case, Accountability Judge Nasir Javed Rana recorded the testimony of three witnesses and set the next hearing for March 16.

Mr Khan, Bushra Bibi, property tycoon Malik Riaz, his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, former accountability czar Mirza Shahzad Akbar, Farhat Shahzadi (also known as Farah Khan), and Zulfi Bukhari have been nominated as accused people in this reference. Except for Mr Khan and Bushra Bibi, the rest have been declared proclaimed offenders.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024