ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s counsel on Friday wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking an early hearing of Imran and Bushra’s appeals against their convictions in Al Qadir Trust and Toshakhana cases in view of the arrival of the Holy Month of Ramzan.
PTI Founder’s counsel Barrister Salman Safdar wrote in his letter that having exhausted all available remedies for the fixation of the cases of his clients Imran and Bushra, he is left with no alternative but to respectfully draw your lordship’s kind and immediate attention to the extraordinary situation of prolonged stagnation through a letter.
Safdar stated that his clients are visibly and gravely struggling to vindicate their legal rights and seek nothing beyond the fixation and hearing of their pending matters before the Islamabad High Court. “Since November 2022, innumerable criminal cases have been registered in the Federal Capital, marking an unprecedented phase of ruthless and coercive political victimization through the state machinery. A multitude of politically motivated prosecutions were initiated and pursued in stark, brazen, and flagrant violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, even to an accused person. By February 2025, as a result of regular and meaningful appellate scrutiny, the vast majority of such false, fictitious, and fabricated prosecutions and convictions stood annulled and quashed by the Superior Courts in their appellate jurisdiction,” the letter said.
He mentioned that Imran arrested on 5 August 2023 remained incarcerated at the Central Jail, Adyala, Rawalpindi and, even to this day, continued to face a multitude of frivolous and mala fide prosecutions, notwithstanding his unwavering trust and confidence in the judicial system of Pakistan.
He also said that this is despite the fact that, to date, no judicial notice has been taken nor any effective action initiated to curb the continuing abuse of the process of law. Several Constitutional Petitions highlighting violations of Prison Rules, Mode of Trials & basic rights assured to common citizens of Pakistan remain pending adjudication before the Islamabad High Court, thereby perpetuating an ongoing denial of justice.
Safdar pointed out that recently, in December 2025, his clients once again fell victim to a recurring pattern of targeted prosecution and were convicted in the Toshakhana vs FIA (Bvlgari Set) case. The investigation and prosecution were unlawfully bifurcated, in blatant disregard of the settled principle of double jeopardy and the mandatory provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which require offences of the same kind or arising out of the same transaction to be tried together. He continued that aggrieved thereof, my clients filed applications under Section 265-K Cr,P.C., which were dismissed by the learned Trial Court. Criminal Revisions were duly filed before the Islamabad High Court in January 2025; however, owing to the inadvertence and mala fide conduct of the case-fixation branch, the said revisions were never fixed for hearing.
He said that consequently, his clients were convicted in the said case without adjudication of the pending Criminal Revisions, rendering the entire process manifestly unjust.
The counsel stated that he represented both clients as lead counsel in all cases and instructions from clients are of paramount importance, as since October 2025 there has been a complete disconnect with the clients, who remained confined at Adiala Jail. The Jail Authorities in brazen violation of Jail Manual & Constitutional Rights are denying meeting and attorney-client communication, an act that cannot be justified on any touchstone.
He wrote that your lordship assumed charge as Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court on 14 February 2025 and now, with the Holy month of Ramzan approaching, the undersigned respectfully implored your esteemed office to take immediate and decisive action so that all serious concerns raised in this communication may be addressed, thereby restoring public confidence in the judicial system of Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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