IHC’s order of 03-08-23: SC Registrar’s Office returns PTI chief’s petition

ISLAMABAD: The Registrar Office Supreme Court, on Saturday, returned Chairman Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s petition against the Islamabad High Court’s order dated 03-08-23.

The IHC had set aside the trial court’s verdict over the maintainability of the Toshakhana case against Imran Khan. It had also turned down the chairman PTI’s appeal to transfer the case to another court and remanded the matter to the trial court to decide it afresh.

Khawaja Haris Ahmed, on behalf of Imran Khan, on Saturday, filed the appeal against the IHC’s order, and requested the apex court to direct that the proceedings before the trial shall remain suspended.

He raised objection that Chief Justice IHC Aamir Farooq in remanding the case to the trial judge has misconstrued the submission made as he had argued that the case be remanded to any judge other than the judge, who had passed the order impugned in the IHC on the grounds other than bias.

He submitted that the IHC has seriously erred in law in remanding the case to the same judge who had earlier passed the order in a “cursory and shoddy” manner, and had already disclosed his mind qua the objections raised before him.

The single judge erred in not placing reliance on and following the dictum laid down by this Court in judgement reported as PLD 1960 SC 18.

The judgments relied upon by the single judge in refusing to remand the matter for decision afresh to a judge other than the judge had passed in the order impugned in Criminal Revision Petition No 108/2023 are wholly inapplicable on law and facts to the instant case and as such, the impugned judgment of the IHC is not warranted by the law.

The manner in which the impugned order was passed by the single judge of the IHC is in breach of the fundamental rights of the petitioner.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023