ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) legal team Saturday approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the Toshakhana case against Imran Khan, a day after the high court rejected the former prime minister’s plea for the transfer of the case.
On Friday, the IHC declared the sessions court’s verdict on the maintainability verdict of the Toshakhana case against the PTI chief in a temporary relief to him but rejected his request to transfer the case to another court.
Today, his lawyer Advocate Khawaja Haris filed a formal application in the SC against the IHC’s decision, with a diary number attached to the petition.
In his appeal, the PTI chairman moved the SC — for a third time — to annul the high court’s order directing Khan to reappear in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar on August 4.
Khan’s legal team had previously filed eight petitions in the IHC, challenging Judge Dilawar’s ruling on the maintainability of the case, a request for transfer of the case to another court on grounds that the judge was rushing the case and was too biased, and other.
After the IHC’s verdict on his pleas, Khan moved the apex to issue a stay order on the trial among other requests made in the fresh petition filed today.
He requested that the trial court be restrained from holding proceedings till a verdict on the new petition is announced.
The petition further argued that the trial judge had “improperly and hastily” declared the Toshakhana case arguable, and that the IHC committed a legal error by sending back the case to Judge Dilawar.
“How can the judge, who has declared a case maintainable, freely rehear it,” the petition questioned, declaring that IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had deprived the petitioner of his fundamental rights in the latest order.
It may be noted that the SC had dismissed Khan’s petition against trial proceedings in the Toshakhana case yesterday, following his withdrawal of the said plea.
“The trial court cannot decide on the Toshakhana case until the final decision of the High Court,” a three-member bench of the SC ruled.
Earlier this week, the apex court had turned away Khan, asking him to await a verdict from the IHC.
“We believe that the high court can issue a better order than us. It is possible that it will give the order to stop the trial tomorrow,” he had said on Wednesday.
