RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday approved a petition filed by Aleema Khan, sister of the incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, seeking further cross-examination of two prosecution witnesses in the November 26 case registered against her and others.
ATC Judge Amjad Ali Shah adjourned the hearing of the case, approving Aleema Khan’s application, which he filed through her counsel, Faisal Malik. The defence counsel conducted cross-examination of 18 prosecution witnesses.
Faisal Malik, in his plea, requested the court to permit him to further cross-examine two prosecution witnesses, including Director Monitoring, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Nadir Khan, and Investigation Officer (IO) Raja Iftikhar, whose statements had already been recorded.
Prosecutor Syed Zaheer Shah objected to the defence counsel’s application, saying that the court has already ruled regarding the two witnesses about whom the defence counsel filed an application for further cross-examination.
Aleema Khan appeared before the court along with her lawyer, Faisal Malik. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till June 10.
Talking to the media, along with Aleema Khan, Faisal Malik said that the court has approved his plea for further cross-examination of two witnesses. The witnesses include the Investigation Officer (IO) of the case and a PEMRA officer, he said, adding that he wanted to ask further questions from these witnesses.
He said that the court has summoned the witnesses to appear before the court. The allegation against Aleema Khan is that she conveyed PTI founding chairman Imran Khan’s message regarding the protest through the media. But our stance is that the PTI founding chairman’s message had already been disseminated through the media before Aleema Khan’s statement.
The lawyer said that the case was registered on November 27, while the protest had already ended on the night of November 26. “The statements of government and administration are on record, confirming that all roads had been reopened by the night of November 26,” he said, adding that a case pertained to a protest and an incident that, in his view, no one had witnessed. The case against Aleema Khan is baseless and politically motivated, he said.
Aleema Khan said that Imran Khan had announced the November 24 protest call in the presence of journalists while in jail. She further stated that, before the November protests, lawmakers had allegedly been pressured in October to pass the 26th Constitutional Amendment.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
Comments