Imran, Bushra move SC against registrar's order

ISLAMABAD:

Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on Monday challenged before the Supreme Court the registrar's decision to return their petitions against the Islamabad High Court's refusal to suspend their sentences in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.

The couple filed a chamber appeal through their counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, under Order V, Rule 3 of the Supreme Court Rules, 2025, challenging the registrar's June 29 decision to return their petitions against the IHC's April 30 order.

The chamber appeal argued that the registrar's office is primarily vested with administrative and procedural powers relating to the filing and processing of cases.

"Such powers are limited to ensuring compliance with procedural requirements, including scrutiny of form, limitation, and other prescribed defects, and do not extend to adjudication of substantive or justiciable issues," the chamber appeal argued, adding that the determination of maintainability, particularly where it involved interpretation of constitutional or statutory provisions, was a judicial function requiring the application of legal reasoning and consideration of rival submissions.

Such jurisdiction "exclusively rests with the Supreme Court and cannot be exercised by the registrar in an administrative capacity", it said.

The appeal further contended that, while returning the petitions, the registrar's office had failed to consider the crucial aspect that under Article 175-A of the Constitution, any high court judgments, decrees, final orders and sentences could be appealed before the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) where expressly provided by law.

It argued that Section 32A of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) provides for a second appeal before the FCC against a high court decision under Section 32 of the ordinance following the rejection of a first appeal.

"However, the NAO does not expressly provide for an appeal against an order passed on an application for the suspension of a sentence, even where such an application arises in an appeal under Section 32 of the Ordinance," the chamber appeal said.