Tosha Khana case: Hearing on appeal against Imran's sentence continues

Islamabad: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday hearing the case of appeal against the sentence of Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan and suspension of his sentence in Tosha Khana criminal case.

During the hearing, Imran Khan's lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa said that the trial court also ignored the order of High Court in the judgment as there are many flaws in it.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Jahangiri of the IHC is hearing the case.

Chairman PTI's lawyer Latif Khosa appeared in the court and argued that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) can authorize one of its officers to file the complaint, in this case the Secretary Election Commission asked the District Election Commissioner to file the complaint.

The lawyer Khosa stated that President of the country pardoned 06 months of the prisoners' sentence on August 14, the term of PTI Chairman's sentence was less and three years’ imprisonment.

He added: “Election Commission consists of Chief Election Commissioner and four members, there is no permission on record for ECP to file complaint”.

Advocate Election Commission Amjad Pervez said the permission of Election Commission is in the record, on which Sardar Latif Khosa said that permission has been given by the Secretary Election Commission.

Chief Justice of IHC asked the lawyer of Imran Khan, “Are you saying that the permit for filing the complaint of Election Commission is not according to the law”, to which Latif Khosa said yes, that permit is not valid.

Latif continued to say that the trial court also ignored the order of the high court, there are many flaws in the decision of the trial court.

He further said the complaint cannot go directly to the Sessions Judge for trial, the procedure is given in the law that the complaint will go to the Magistrate first. Sessions Court cannot hear the complaint directly, the order of the trial court is wrong. The cause cannot be sustained.

Sardar Latif Khosa requested that the punishment of chairman PTI should be suspended. He said: “We will appear before the court again for arguments on the appeal to declare the sentence null and void”.

The Chief Justice of IHC Aamer inquired if the decision of the trial court was given on all these issues. On which Imran’s lawyer said not at all, the given verdict had been annulled by the High Court.

Justice Aamer Farooq inquired whether the trial court gave reasons in the final verdict. To which Latif Khosa said the trial court did not give reasons, rather the judge ignored your decision.

Justice Tariq Jahangiri asked on what basis the trial court called the defense witnesses irrelevant? Latif Khosa replied that the trial court declared the witnesses of chairman PTI irrelevant on the same day without examining the witnesses. It did not write the reason for declaring the witnesses irrelevant.

Sardar Khosa added if such thing has ever happened in the criminal history. A notice was issued on the application of the trial court's decision to waive the right to defence.

Imran’s lawyer complained and said, Chief Justice Sir, you did not stop the trial court from taking the final decision. The accused cannot be prevented from producing witnesses in his defence.

He added that one person is presenting his defense, how can you stop him. We were presenting four witnesses, there were no 40. The trial court's decision affected the constitutional rights of Chairman PTI.

Complaints can be filed within 120 days, this complaint was filed 920 days after the filing of the returns, and it cannot be that a sword is always hanging over my head.

Khosa continued to say that trial court not only terminated the right of defense of accused but also did not listen to the argument of Khawaja Haris.

Haris had reached the trial court at 12 o'clock but the judge said that you are not needed anymore, the court reserved the judgment and issued a 30-page judgment after half an hour.

Chairman PTI told that even the gate of his house and the door of the washroom were broken.

After the arguments of Chairman PTI's lawyer Latif Khosa were completed, Chief Justice IHC Aamer Farooq asked Election Commission's lawyer, Amjad Parvez, do you have anything to say?

On which Amjad Parvez said, Mr. Khosa is also a witness of my marriage. There was laughter in the court on his words.

The court yesterday allowed Imran’s Lawyers Babar Awan and Latif Khosa to meet him in the Attock Jail.

On the other hand, Chairman PTI has approached the Supreme Court with no confidence in the Islamabad High Court and has requested to transfer his cases, trials and inquiries from Islamabad High Court to Lahore or Peshawar High Court.

On the request of Imran Khan, the hearing will also be held in the Supreme Court today.

The hearing on Imran Khan's petition against the decision of IHC in Tosha Khana case was set to held in the Supreme Court at 2:00 pm.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial will hear the case.

During the hearing yesterday, the Chief Justice had remarked that the order of the trial court in the Toshakhana case was not correct, the judge of the trial court made a hasty decision.

Justice Umar Atta Bandial also said in his remarks that the High Court asked to decide on the Tosha Khana case in seven days and the trial court decided in a single day, if any decision is wrong then they can intervene.