The Islamabad High Court (IHC) overturned the session court’s previous ruling, which had deemed the Toshakhana reference against the PTI chairman admissible for criminal proceedings.
IHC aside trial court’s verdict in Toshakhana case: IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued a reserved decision and directed that the case be heard again and decided. The PTI chairman’s request to have the case moved to a different court, however, was denied by the chief justice of the IHC.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) filed the Toshakhana complaint against the PTI leader for “deliberately concealing” the gifts he got while serving as prime minister and keeping them from the Toshakhana.
The PTI leader had twice asked the supreme court for help in this situation. Although it had rejected his application, the Supreme Court had advised him to wait for the high court’s ruling, which was at the moment still pending.
The PTI leader filed a number of applications with the IHC, contesting the additional district and sessions court’s authority to hear the case and highlighting various issues with the court’s decision to revoke his access to a lawyer in the Toshakhana case.
IHC CJ Farooq had reserved the decision on the PTI leader’s petitions about his trial in an Islamabad court over Toshakhana gifts a day earlier.
The judgement invalidated the decision of the lower court and addressed five of the eight petitions that the PT head had submitted.
The IHC ordered the trial court to address all of the PTI chief’s concerns and issue notices restoring the right to defense. However, the court denied the request for transferring the case to another court.
Additionally, the PTI leader was unsuccessful in getting an immediate halt of proceedings.
“High Court’s Judgment and Federal Investigation Agency’s Probe into Alleged Social Media Posts by Trial Court Judge”
“The Trial Court shall address the issues raised in the referred petitions while deciding the matter,” the judgement stated.
“The high court has instructed the Federal Investigation Agency to further investigate the matter after taking note of the concerns expressed about social media posts allegedly affiliated with the trial court judge.”
According to the Federal Investigation Agency’s report, Mr. Hamayoon Dilawar, Additional Sessions Judge (West), Islamabad Presiding Officer of Trial Court, did not actually post the purported statements on his Facebook account. According to the ruling, the authorities mandate the Federal Investigation Agency to thoroughly investigate the incident, consult with all parties involved, and submit a report to the Deputy Registrar (Judicial) of this Court within a fortnight.