Adiala Jail, Imran's counsel in Vakalatnama row

ISLAMABAD:

The counsel for former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, and the Adiala Jail authorities on Monday made conflicting claims regarding the signing and provision of powers of attorney (PoAs) required to represent the couple before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in connection with the £190 million case.

The superintendent of Adiala Jail, in a written reply submitted to the IHC, claimed that the PoAs signed by Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi had been prepared on June 16 in compliance with court orders and that their counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, had been informed the same day via text message.

He alleged that Barrister Salman Safdar had attempted to mislead the court regarding the matter.

According to the response, Safdar was informed via text message that the signed PoAs were available for collection. The jail authorities also attached a screenshot of the text message with their reply submitted before the court.

The superintendent further contended that despite being informed, the legal team representing Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi deliberately did not collect the documents before the hearing held on June 18.

Responding to the jail authorities' claims, Barrister Salman Safdar strongly disputed the superintendent's version of events.

Safdar told The Express Tribune that members of his legal team visited Adiala Jail five to six times over the past four weeks to obtain the powers of attorney but were not provided with the documents.

He stated that advocates Sarmad, Ahmad Maysar and Khalid Yousaf approached Adiala Jail on more than five occasions to secure the documents.

According to Safdar, the repeated unsuccessful attempts compelled the legal team to file a contempt petition before the Islamabad High Court on the morning of June 15. "After filing the contempt petition, it was conveyed for the first time that we could collect a POA executed only by Imran Khan Sahib and not by Bushra Bibi. This was unacceptable for us," Safdar said.