Aleema Khan seeks 21 people, including 2 federal ministers and a provincial minister, as witnesses in court
RAWALPINDI:
An ATC in Rawalpindi on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan seeking summoning 21 people, including two federal ministers and a provincial minister, as witnesses in court in an ongoing case.
ATC judge Syed Amjad Ali Shah announced the reserved verdict on Aleema Khan’s application, ruling that the proposed witnesses could not be called as it would amount to repeating an exercise already undertaken during the trial.
The court observed that 19 prosecution witnesses were cross-examined at length during the proceedings. According to the written order, the defense attorney also conducted a lengthy cross-examination regarding video footage and newspaper clippings presented during the trial. The court held that calling additional witnesses on the same issues would effectively repeat the same exercise and was therefore unnecessary.
Aleema had asked the court to summon 21 people, including Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari.
The application also sought appearance of editors and bureau chiefs of various newspapers and television channels. Special prosecutor Zaheer Shah opposed the request and presented arguments against summoning the proposed witnesses to court.
Aleema’s lawyer, Faisal Malik, made arguments in support of the request during proceedings held last week. After hearing both sides, the court reserved its verdict, announced Wednesday.
Naqvi’s offer
PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan on Wednesday said the family rejected Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s “offer” to facilitate a meeting between Noreen Niazi and the former prime minister through a fresh request to the prison superintendent.
Speaking to the media outside an anti-terrorism court, Aleema said PTI president Barrister Gohar conveyed Naqvi’s message regarding a possible meeting between Noreen Khan and her brother.
She claimed that making a new application to the prison director would have compromised a unanimous decision by the full bench of the High Court, arguing that the prison director was a lower-ranking official compared to the authority of the court’s decision.
Aleema said the aim of the proposal was to arrange a brief meeting between Noreen Khan and the PTI founder before returning him to prolonged solitary confinement.
“That’s why we rejected the application,” she said.
According to Aleema, their legal experts had explained to them the “strategy of the authorities”. She said the aim was to ease international pressure by allowing only a short meeting while maintaining existing restrictions on the PTI founder.
She further said that under the prison manual, the PTI founder was entitled to constitutional and legal meetings with his family members.
