Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled on Tuesday that the Toshakhana case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was not maintainable.

The verdict on the PTI chief’s petition to have the case declared inadmissible was reserved by Chief Justice Amir Farooq of the federal capital’s top court on June 23.

On May 10, Khan was indicted in the Toshakhana case by Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar, who overruled objections to the case’s admissibility.

The PTI chief then went to the IHC, which ordered a stay of criminal proceedings in the case until June 8.

Following the resumption of the hearing in June, Justice Aamer reserved his decision on the petition on June 23, saying he would look into it after Eid ul Adha.

The PTI chair objected to filing a complaint after a certain period in his petition.

His lawyer, Khawaja Haris, insisted that a complaint could only be filed four months after the return was submitted.

However, the PTI chief had filed a petition with the court the day before, requesting that Justice Aamer recuse himself from the case.

In the petition, the former prime minister — who was deposed by a no-confidence vote in April last year — requested that the two Toshakhana cases be transferred to another bench in the interest of a “fair and impartial” trial.

During a talk with media personnel outside the IHC, the PTI chief’s lawyer, Gohar Khan, termed the verdict a “victory”.

“An appeal was filed against the decision of the session judge in the Toshakhana case,” he said, adding that the wrong person filed the complaint.

“We were trying in courts for a year. Today, PTI has won,” he said.