The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday barred the trial court from announcing final verdict and sought reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 190 million pound case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Founder Imran Khan.
Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb passed the order on a petition moved by Imran Khan seeking record of the previous order of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding closure of the 190 million pound case.
Advocate Salman Safdar and Advocate Khalid Yousaf Chaudhary represented Imran Khan in the case and submitted that 35 witnesses have been cross examined and only one witness, the investigation officer, is left for cross examination.
Imran Khan was arrested in Al-Qadir Trust case—the same 190 million pounds case—from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
According to the NAB, NCA confiscated amount worth 190 million pound while Imran Khan, who was the prime minister at that time, allegedly provided facilitation in the matter.
It said that the case is related to it as the money was supposed to come into the account of the State Bank of Pakistan but it was sent into the account of the Supreme Court (SC).
Al-Qadir, it said, is a registered trust while the land for the university was gifted in 2019.
On it, the court observed that it was hearing the case, and trust was not registered.
Salman Safdar said that they had moved the trial court about seeking record of the NAB executive board meeting but their plea was rejected. The lawyer said that the judge had referred to the surprising reasons behind declining their plea, holding that the investigation officer neither was the writer of the record and nor he was the custodian.
“I came to know that the case has been closed down after a period of three months. The Supreme Court had stayed trial of any case related to the NAB,” said the lawyer.
After hearing arguments, the IHC stayed the trial court from announcing the final verdict and sought reply from the NAB.
The court also directed the PTI founder’s lawyers not to use delaying tactics in the case, warning that the decision could be withdrawn if the delaying tactics were used in the case.
The court put off further hearing till Wednesday.
