ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday filed a pe­­tition with the Islam­abad High Court to halt the trial in the GBP190 million corruption case, while his sisters, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, approached the Supreme Court seeking the recusal of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa from cases involving their brother, but their plea was not entertained by the SC office.

Imran Khan’s petition contended that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had recommended closing the £190m corruption reference in its 343rd Executive Board meeting in April 2020, and that during cross-examination, the investigation officer acknowledged certain facts related to the meeting.

The petition, filed by Barrister Salman Safdar and Advocate Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, said the former prime minister had filed an application before an accountability court, seeking the case record, but it was dismissed by the judge.

It may be mentioned that the investigation officer in the case is the last prosecution witness. He has testified before the accountability court a couple of weeks ag, but the defence counsel could not completed his cross-examination for various reasons.

SC office turns down his sisters’ application seeking recusal of CJP from cases involving ex-PM

The petition said: “The investigation officer of the case appeared before the accountability court as PW [prosecution witness] 35 and during the cross-examination, he categorically admitted the holding of 343rd EBM, [and] closure of this case by the above EBM.”

It said the minutes of the aforementioned meeting are in the possession of NAB and need to be produced before the trial court as crucial evidence in support of the defence. The petition requested the IHC to issue a directive for NAB to produce the relevant record before the trial court, and stay the trial proceedings till the submission of the record.

Recusal of CJP

Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan submitted a two-page application for the recusal of CJP Isa from the cases in which their brother was a party. However, Shahbaz Khosa, son of PTI leader Sardar Latif Khosa, later told Dawn that the application was not accepted by the Supreme Court office, despite attempts to have it entertained.

He regretted that when none of the advocates-on-record — who are authorised to plead on behalf of a party — came forward to file the application in the Supreme Court, they attempted to approach the registrar’s office, but were unsuccessful.

“As a consequence, we were left with no option but to hold a press conference,” he said. “We, as PTI leaders, will continue making attempt to file the application again and again.”

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During the press conference, PTI Chairman Bar­rister Gohar Ali Khan veh­emently objected to the remarks made by CJP Faez Isa in the Monal case reg­arding the £190m related to the Al-Qadir Trust case, and urged the top judge to refrain from making comments, especially since the case is in its final stages at the lower court.

He said the SC’s Code of Conduct suggested that a judge should not make observations when a case, or a petitioner or a party was not before him.

Latif Khosa regretted that he had not seen any instance in his entire 50 years of professional life that an application was not received by the court office.

He recalled the Feb 11, 2021 judgement, in which a five-judge SC bench, led by then-CJP Gulzar Ahmed, had ruled that Justice Isa should recuse himself from hearing cases involving then-PM Imran Khan, given that the judge had already filed a petition against the PTI founder in his personal capacity.

Keeping in view that judgement, the incumbent CJP should also chose not to hear any case in which Imran Khan was a party, he said.

The application stated that the observations by the CJP in the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) contempt case should be withdrawn and that the top judge should not be part of any case in which their brother was a party. “Further, we reserved our right to initiate proceeding before the Supreme Judicial Council in this regard,” it said.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024