Verdict in £190mn reference postponed again

Rawalpindi: The verdict in the 190-million-pound reference against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and his wife, Bushra Bibi, has been postponed again.

Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana postponed the decision till Friday, January 17.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana said: "I have been in the court since 8:30am. I sent a message to the PTI founder twice but he did not come and neither did anyone from Bushra Bibi or her lawyers appear".

PTI founder stated that he would not come to the courtroom until any of his family members or lawyers came.

Judge Nasir Javed stated that he was giving the accused another chance to pronounce the verdict, now the verdict of the case will be pronounced on January 17.

Earlier, PTI founder’s lawyer Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry also confirmed that the court staff has informed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution team about the verdict being delivered today.

It is pertinent to note that earlier on December 18, the accountability court reserved the verdict on the £190 million reference. The court had first set December 23 and then January 6 for the verdict, then the third date was January 13.

Notably, the trial of the 190 million pound reference was completed in a year and NAB recorded the statements of 35 witnesses during the trial. The lawyers of the PTI founder cross-examined the witnesses.

Important witnesses in the £190 million reference, former Principal Secretary Azam Khan, former Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, and former Federal Minister Zubaida Jalal, also recorded their statements. The indictment was filed on February 27 last year in the 190-million-pound reference.