Imran Khan’s lawyer seeks adjournment in £190m appeal

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, on Wednesday moved a miscellaneous application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking an adjournment of the main appeal hearing in the £190 million corruption case.

The application was filed a day before a two-member division bench headed by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar was scheduled to hear the appeals of Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, against their convictions in the case.

In his plea, Safdar told the court that he did not have instructions from his clients to proceed with the appeals. He said that despite efforts, prison authorities had not facilitated a meeting with Imran Khan for obtaining directions in the matter.

The lawyer also asked the court to allow him to meet his client so that he could obtain instructions and get the power of attorney signed. The petition further requested the court to direct jail authorities to ensure a meeting between counsel and client so that proper instructions could be secured before the hearing of the main appeals.

Along with that request, the application sought postponement of the hearing fixed for Thursday.

Appeals fixed after sentence suspension pleas were rejected

Earlier this week, on Monday, the IHC dismissed petitions filed by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi seeking suspension of their sentences in the £190 million corruption case. The court observed that their main appeals had already been fixed for hearing.

The appeals relate to convictions handed down in January last year by an Islamabad accountability court in a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). In that case, Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison, while Bushra Bibi was awarded a seven-year prison term.

After the verdict, the former prime minister and his wife filed appeals in the IHC. Those appeals are now set to be taken up more than a year later.

Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are currently being held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

The IHC is presently hearing appeals seeking suspension of the sentences, while the main appeals against conviction are also scheduled before the court.

The latest application centres on the defence counsel’s position that he cannot properly argue the matter without first consulting his client and completing the required legal formalities, including the signing of the power of attorney.

The division bench led by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar is expected to take up the matter on Thursday.