Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed the decision of the trial court regarding the admissibility of Toshakhana criminal case and remanded the case back to the additional session court for re-hearing. The court also rejected the appeals seeking to stay the proceeding in toshakhana case and the shifting of case to another court. The bench also served notices to the respondents on another appeal regarding production of witnesses and seeking to restore the right of defence of the accused.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued the written order regarding the termination of lower court’s verdict pertaining maintainability of the criminal case against the former prime minister. The court also instructed the trial court to also give answers to the question raised in the appeal while announcing its fresh verdict about the admissibility of the case.

The court rejected the appeal for transfer of the criminal case to another court and said that as per the verdicts of the high courts in similar matters a case could only be shifted to the alternative court on the basis of solid reasons.

The written order said that the petitioner had raised the objection against the trial court judge due to his alleged Facebook posts about the case. The trial court judge had also rejected the plea seeking to shift the case to another court.

It further said that the ECP’s lawyer was of the view that the Facebook posts associated with the judge were fake. It had been done to damage the repute of the court, he said. The order said that the additional session judge Hamayun Dilawar had also denied the social media posts associated with his name. The court directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to conduct inquiry from all the people involved in uploading posts on social media about trial court’s judge without verification.

The court also instructed Imran Khan to ensure that his lawyer would give arguments whenever the trial court would seek final arguments in the criminal case.