Imran’s witness list rejected in gifts case

SC denies PTI chief stay against hearing

ISLAMABAD:

An additional district and sessions court (ADSJ) in Islamabad rejected on Wednesday the witness list presented by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman in the Toshakhana case terming them irrelevant to the case.

The decision of Judge Humayun Dilawar came as the Supreme Court rejected the PTI chief’s request to stay the trial court's proceedings, and asked him to wait until the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision on his pending petitions.

ADSJ Dilawar took up the case against the PTI chairman filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for concealing details of Toshakana [government repository] gifts he received during his term in office as the prime minister.

The other day, the PTI chief had submitted his response to 35 questions raised by the court and presented a list of four private witnesses in his defence against the prosecution's allegations.

The witnesses were tax consultant Muhammad Usman Ali, Aqdeer Ahmed, Naveed Farid and PTI's Raoof Hassan. Imran’s counsel Gauhar Khan requested the court to give one day's time to present all the witnesses in the court.

During the hearing, Advocate Amjad Pervez, who is representing the ECP, argued that all those witnesses were irrelevant to the case, saying that the list was an attempt to delay the case. The court accepted the request of the ECP lawyer.

Pronouncing the verdict on the witnesses list, ADSJ Dilawar ruled that Barrister Gauhar provided the list of defence witnesses but did not present them before the court. The court was also requested to give a date for their statements.

The judge added that the ECP lawyer raised objections to the list of witnesses, saying that the statements of private witnesses were recorded on behalf of the accused, while the list of official witnesses was not given.

According to the ECP lawyer, the court continued, the list of witnesses included a tax consultant and an accountant, while the case was about ‘Form B’ and false affidavit; therefore, the four witnesses were not relevant to the case.

The court said that the charge against the accused was about concealing assets and giving false affidavit while the defence counsel admitted that the four witnesses were tax consultants.

The ADSJ pointed out that the court was not looking at the entries regarding income tax and wealth statement. Furthermore, he added, the lawyers of the accused could not prove the relevance of the witnesses to the case.

Read PTI chief fails yet again to secure relief at SC in Toshakhana case

Therefore, the witnesses could not be allowed to appear in the court, the judge ruled. He called for final arguments from the parties on Thursday (today). He warned that if the parties would not argue, the decision would be reserved.

No SC relief

Also, a three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Yahya Afridi, rejected for a second time the PTI chief’s plea for staying the proceedings in the court of the ADSJ.

Just last week, the apex court had declined to intervene in the criminal proceedings against the former prime minister. Yet Imran's legal team approached the top court once again, seeking suspension of the trial.

Justice Yahya Afridi urged PTI chief’s lawyer Khawaja Haris to "think more" about the case. "It would be better to wait for the high court's directives instead of having the Supreme Court issue orders," he said.

"Our orders [on previous petition] had stated that the high court should hear all petitions together," said Justice Afridi. "Perhaps the relief that you are looking for from us, you will get from the IHC," he said.

“We had expected that the high court would issue better orders for you," Justice Afridi observed. "The relief you had requested for, we already granted [in the last hearing]. I am surprised that you still approached the Supreme Court," he added.

Nonetheless, the court issued notices on the PTI chief's request and summoned the ECP officials concerned on August 4 before adjourning the proceedings until then.

Toshakhana case

The Toshakhana case is based on a complaint filed by the ECP. It is alleged that Imran had “deliberately concealed” details of the gifts he retained from the Toshaskhana during his term in office and the proceeds from their reported sale.

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

The Toshakhana is a department under the Cabinet Division that stores gifts given to rulers and government officials by the heads of other governments and foreign dignitaries.

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)