Rawalpindi:
The council of former Prime Minister Imran Khan left a short anti -terrorist (ATC) on Tuesday after the judge rejected his request to stop procedure in a case until a regulation of the high court on the legality of his decision to guarantee the presence of IMRAN through a Whatsapp video appeal.
During the hearing on the GHQ attack case of May 9 in which Imran Khan is one of the main accused, a stormy argument took place between the defense – the advice of Imran – and the prosecution.
On behalf of Imran Khan, two requests were filed: one requesting transcriptions and video surveillance images of the September 19 procedure in which Imran Khan also appeared via WhatsApp, and another requesting the suspension of the trial to an order of the high court in matters of prison.
One of Imran’s advice, lawyer Faisal Malik, argued that until they were authorized to consult Imran Khan in private, the defense could not be part of the trial.
The judge replied that Imran had already had the opportunity during the last hearing, but he himself chose to boycott the procedure. The court advised the defense to challenge its decision and argued that the procedure could not be interrupted.
The prosecutor Ikram Amin Minhas said that the defense had boycotted the last hearing, so the court was therefore not forced to entertain their objections. He accused the defense of having deliberately lost time, noting that the trial could not be arrested because the testimonies of the witnesses of the accusation were to be recorded.
The prosecutor Zaheer Shah added that there was no legal provision to interrupt the procedures and that the judicial orders interviewed were equivalent to an outrage. Malik explained that they only demanded a fair trial: “If the accused cannot hear his lawyer, or if the lawyer cannot hear his client, how is it a fair trial?”
The prosecutor Shah argued that the repeated boycotts and the new applications were only half-tours and that in the high court instructions, no sequence or transcriptions could be provided. He accused the defendant of wanting to apologize to describe himself as victims in the media.
Imran’s main lawyer, Salman Akram Raja, stressed that the courts should act under the Constitution, and not the government’s instructions: “You cannot present a person locked in a cell on a Whatsapp appeal.”
The judge reiterated that the defense had the right to challenge the ordinances before the High Court, but unless the High Court publishes new instructions, the procedure would not be interrupted.
The Salman Akram Raja and Faisal Muhammad Malik Defense Councils organized a ranging to protest against the continuation of the procedures based on WhatsApp. The founder of the PTI, Imran Khan, appeared before the court through a WhatsApp video call, but after a few minutes, again boycotted the procedure.
According to Raja, they could barely hear Imran due to a bad connection and the call abandoned as soon as they announced the boycott.
Despite the slipping, the court recorded the declarations of eight witnesses, notably the additional director of the PEMRA, Nadir Khan, the technical assistants of the FIA, anis-rehman and Muhammad Imran, the assistant directors of Pid Muhammad Tariq and Hasnain Wazir, two former assistant commissioners of Islamabad.
The advice of the founder of the PTI, Salman Akram Raja and Faisal Malik, officially challenged the procedure of the GHQ attack cases before the Rawalpindi bench of the High Court of Lahore (LHC).
In their constitutional petition, they argued that such procedures are unconstitutional, illegal and contrary to the principles of a fair trial under article 10-A of the Constitution.
The petition aims to have the video trial / WhatsApp that Null and Null demands, and requires that Imran Khan be produced before the Adiala prison court, either an open trial to be conducted in the prison premises in accordance with constitutional guarantees.
The petition also requests that all procedures carried out via WhatsApp call on September 19 and 23.
He points out that lawyers cannot consult their client properly, and meetings cannot take place, under a video connection test. The petition recalls that the High Court of Islamabad had already canceled a similar attempt in the Cipher case.
An LHC division bench including Judge Sadaqat Ali Khan and judge Muhammad Waheed Khan could resume the petition today (Wednesday).
