£190m case draws close to conclusion

The prosecution in the £190 million reference case against PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi rested its case on Wednesday after the defence lawyers completed the cross-examination of the last witness.

With the conclusion of the cross-examination of the witnesses, the trial moved towards its completion. An Islamabad accountability court fixed November 8 (tomorrow) for the statement of the accused and adjourned further hearing.

Accountability Judge Nasir Javed Rana conducted the hearing in Adiala Jail. The PTI founder was presented in the courtroom, while Bushra Bibi also came to the jail for the hearing.

During the hearing, PTI founder's lawyer Chaudhry Zaheer Abbas and Bibi's lawyer Usman Gul cross-examined the final witness in the reference case, investigating Officer (IO) Mian Umar Nadeem.

IO Nadeem had recorded his statement in the court on July 30. The defence side completed the cross-examination of the witness in 37 hearings. The record showed that Abbas used 20 hearings and Usman Gul used 14 hearings for the cross-examination.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecution team informed the court that they had presented all their evidence and had no further submissions.

Consequently, the court scheduled the recording of statements for November 8 under Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), along with distributing questionnaires for the proceedings.

Toshakhana-II bail

In a related development, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has scheduled the bail hearing of PTI founder Imran Khan in the new Toshakhana case for November 12.

According to the IHC registrar's office, the post-arrest bail application will be heard by Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb.