190m British pound case against IK, Bushra: Trial court restrained from giving final verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Monday, barred a trial court from giving a final verdict in the 190 million UK pound case against former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi.

A division bench of IHC comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Babar Sattar said that the trial will continue. However, it barred the trial court from making final judgement in the case and deferred the hearing until Wednesday.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Salman Safdar argued that the trial court had already testified 35 witnesses and that the cross-examination of the last witness, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigation officer, was still pending.

The court noted that out of the eight individuals named in the reference, six were absconders, and the trial was only proceeding against two individuals.

The lawyer stated that the petitioner was accused of facilitating the 190-million-pound scam, and that the NAB case claimed the amount was supposed to arrive in a bank but instead came into the Supreme Court’s account.

In this matter, the former prime minister Imran Khan filed the petition seeking court’s directions to halt the trial in the 190-million UK pound corruption case.

Imran Khan’s counsel contended that the NAB had recommended closing the £190m corruption reference in its 343rd Executive Board meeting in April 2020, and that during cross-examination, the investigation officer acknowledged certain facts related to the meeting.

The petition, filed by Barrister Salman Safdar and Advocate Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, said that the former prime minister had filed an application before an accountability court, seeking the case record, but it was dismissed by the judge.

The petition said, “The investigation officer of the case appeared before the accountability court as PW [prosecution witness] 35 and during the cross-examination, he categorically admitted the holding of 343rd EBM, [and] closure of this case by the above EBM.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024