Imran, Bushra and Qureshi: FIA raises questions on maintainability of pleas – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raised questions over the upholding of appeals of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi against their convictions in the Cypher and Toshakhana cases.

A special bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, heard the appeals of former Prime Minister Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Qureshi against their convictions in the Cypher and Toshakhana cases.

During the hearing, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah raised objections to the continuation of the appeals. He argued that there is no provision for appeal under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is also silent on the issue. Additionally, the prosecutor argued that a two-member court cannot hear the appeal and the matter should be resolved in a one-member court. Responding to these objections, the lawyer representing PTI founder Salman Safdar argued that it is never possible in law that an appeal cannot be heard. He further asserted that the CrPC would indeed apply to the Official Secrets Act, thereby allowing an appeal. However, he acknowledged that the FIA's objections needed to be taken into account.

To this, Justice Hassan noted that the FIA ​​prosecutor had raised a fundamental objection to the appeals. He added that the court would first hear this objection and decide.

The Chief Justice said it was true that no one could be left without recourse. He stressed the importance of carefully examining both the prosecution's objections and the arguments presented by the PTI founders' lawyer. He noted that several issues of first impression had arisen in this case, which spoke to the complexity of the case.

The IHC bench asked the PTI founders' lawyer to provide detailed arguments responding to the objections raised by the FIA. Furthermore, the bench sought clarification on whether the appeals filed by the suspects were admissible or not. He added that accepting the objection raised by the FIA ​​would change the status of the appeal, but would not necessarily end the proceedings.

Later, the court postponed the hearing, ordering both parties to further present their arguments in this regard.

In this case, Khan, Bushra and Qureshi forwarded the petitions through their lawyers, lawyer Ali Zafar, Salman Safdar's lawyer and others, and cited the chairman of the State and National Accountability Bureau ( NAB) and the Secretary of the Interior as defendants.

Khan and Qureshi challenged the conviction and their 10-year sentence each in the figure case. Khan and Bushra Bibi appealed their convictions in the Toshakhana case, in which they were sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment each and fined 1.54 billion rupees.

Khan's lawyer said in the application that the appellant and co-accused, Qureshi, would be tried in case FIR No06/23 dated 15.08.2023 (Cypher case) under sections 5 and 9 of the Act on Official Secrets Act, 1923 read with Section 34. of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860. The appellant was arrested on 15.08.2023 and is aggrieved by the conviction and sentence passed in the present case by judgment dated 30.01.2024 delivered by Abu-al Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain, Special Judge (Official Secrets Act, 1923), Islamabad.

It is submitted that the prosecution improperly documented the evidence, in violation of the mandatory provisions laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, and that despite repeated objections raised by the appellant, the trial court refrained from doing so. 'to intervene. Lawyer Zafar argued that Khan and his wife were subjected to a sham trial in which the courts not only proceeded unfairly and with undue haste but also ignored the fundamental right to a fair trial and due process. regular.

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