ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday rejecting the petition filed by former prime minister and ex-PTI chairman Imran Khan, seeking immediate halt to cypher case hearing and sought seeking reports from the respondents by Dec 20.
The petitioner claimed that legal requirements for holding trial of the ex-PTI chairman in the case inside Adiala Jail had not been met.
Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb presided over the hearing, observing the court would review the plea once the parties had submitted their reports.
Sikander Zulqarnain Saleem, the petitioner’s counsel, contended that the trial court judge did not have the notification for the jail trial being allowed when he fixed the date for the PTI leaders’ indictment.
He said, “Our stance is that when there was no notification for a jail trial in front of the judge, how could he pass an order after conducting a hearing?”
The court inquired whether the government’s notification for the jail trial was issued later, to which the lawyer replied that he was not aware of it.
Saleem asserted that it was the government’s duty to determine the venue of the hearing and not the judge’s.
Justice Aurangzeb then stated that it was the judge’s authority to do so and that he could choose jail as the venue for trial but observed that it should be an open court.
He further said that a judge could order that the trial should be held in jail. “But that should be an open court,” he clarified.
The counsel urged the court to issue a stay order immediately on the cipher trial, at which the IHC said it would decide the case after reviewing reports from the respondents. It then adjourned the hearing till Dec 20.
Later, the court adjourned the case’s hearing until December 20.
