A hearing is currently underway in the Islamabad High Court regarding former Prime Minister Imran Khan request to halt the trial and obtain the record of the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) previous decision to close the £190 million case.
The division bench, consisting of Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb and Justice Babar Sattar, is hearing the petition along with objections from the Registrar’s Office. The petitioner’s lawyers, Barrister Salman Safdar and Advocate Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry, are present in court.
Salman Akram Raja, Arif Alvi, Shibli Faraz, Ali Muhammad Khan, Azam Khan, and others are also present in the courtroom.
During the hearing, lawyer Salman Safdar argued that the reference against Imran Khan is ongoing, with 35 witnesses already presented. The cross-examination of the last witness, the investigation officer, is in progress. There are 8 accused in the case, with 6 proclaimed offenders and the case against a husband and wife still ongoing. The primary allegation is against the Malik Riaz family, who are proclaimed offenders. The accusation is that when the petitioner was Prime Minister, he facilitated the £190 million deal. NAB’s case is that the money was supposed to be deposited in the State Bank but was instead transferred to the Supreme Court’s account. This settlement was between Malik Riaz and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which handed over the money for them to use as they wished.
He further mentioned that the Al-Qadir Trust case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi is also under trial. Imran Khan was arrested by the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Qadir Trust case. Initially, NAB filed a reference against 8 accused; the court declared six as proclaimed offenders due to their absence. The reference against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi is ongoing. According to NAB, the NCA seized £190 million.
It is worth noting that on August 16, former Prime Minister Imran Khan filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court to halt the trial in the £190 million corruption case.
In Imran Khan’s petition, it was stated that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recommended closing the £190 million corruption reference in its 343rd Executive Board meeting in April 2020, and during the cross-examination, the investigation officer admitted to certain facts related to the meeting.
The petition, filed by Barrister Salman Safdar and Advocate Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry, mentioned that the former Prime Minister had filed a request in the accountability court to obtain the case record, but the judge dismissed it.
It was clarified that the investigation officer is the prosecution’s last witness in the case. He testified in the accountability court a few weeks ago, but the defense counsel could not complete the cross-examination for various reasons.
The petition stated that the investigation officer appeared as the 35th witness for the prosecution in the accountability court and admitted to the holding of the 343rd Executive Board meeting and the decision to close the case in that meeting during cross-examination.
It mentioned that the minutes of the said meeting are in NAB’s possession and need to be presented in the trial court as crucial evidence supporting the defense. The petition requested the court to direct NAB to present the relevant record before the trial court and to halt the trial proceedings until the record is submitted.