ISLAMABAD: An Accountability Court on Thursday deferred the indictment of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the Toshakhana corruption reference till January 6.
The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing the case at Adiala jail, postponed the framing of charges against Khan and his wife in the Toshakhana case after the prosecution requested it to grant it time.
The PTI chief and his wife’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Deputy Prosecutor General, Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, and prosecutor Amjad Pervez appeared before the court.
At the start of the hearing, the prosecutor requested the court to defer the indictment and grant it six to seven days.
The court approved the NAB’s request and adjourned the hearing of the case till January 6.
Meanwhile, arguments over the bail pleas of Khan and his wife in the Toshakhana case and the Al Qadir Trust case could not be completed.
Khosa while talking to the media after the hearing, said that the NAB has appointed Amjad Pervez as the new prosecutor who is also the lawyer of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif.
The new prosecutor, Amjad Pervez, requested the court to grant him seven to 10 days for reviewing the case.
He said that following his insistence and objecting to the prosecutor’s request the court adjourned the hearing till January 6. The PTI will contest the general elections whether it gets the bat symbol or not, we have made our strategy in advance, he said.
Khosa said that no PML-N candidate can visit their constituency. The PTI chief’s lawyer further said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) can punish the Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) under sections 185, 186, and 187 of the Election Act and can also transfer them. Courts have the responsibility to ensure the basic rights of people, he said.
The anti-graft watchdog filed the reference against Khan and his wife on December 21. Khan was disqualified on October 21, 2023, from the National Assembly for five years by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after he was found guilty of concealing facts about selling expensive gifts.
According to the NAB, the inquiry proceedings have revealed that as former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan was presented with 108 gifted state assets, out of the same, 58 gifted state assets were retained by Khan.
He did not deposit the gifted state assets in Toshakhana for fair price assessment in contravention of rules and subsequently retained said gifted state items worth millions of rupees, it says.
The gifted state assets were retained without fair price assessment for your benefit, it said, adding that moreover, Khan sold/misappropriated some of the gifted state assets for personal benefit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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