Daily Times

A sessions court on Monday adjourned hearing of appeals against the conviction of PTI founder and Bushra Bibi on irregular marriage for April 24 after a heated debate between advocates Rizwan Abbasi and Salman Akram Raja.

Advocate Abbasi was granted concession twice by sessions judge Shah Rukh Arjamand as he did not appear before the court till 1pm as he was “busy” with cases in the Supreme Court. The judge had warned his assistant that the case would be decided today if Advocate Abbasi failed to appear before the court.

When he finally appeared before the court, he started reading the decision of trial court. PTI founder’s lawyer Salman Raja stopped him and asked him to argue the case. He told the court that Advocate Abbasi was employing delaying tactics.

The judge asked Advocate Abbasi how much time he needed to argue the case. The lawyer replied he needed about five hours. He requested the court to adjourn the hearing till May. However, the judge turned down his request and adjourned the case till April 24. Earlier, the court took a break till 11:30am when Khawar Manika’s lawyer Abbasi failed to reach in time. His assistant told judge Arjamand that Advocate Abbasi was on his way. Later, he sought another delay as the advocate was “busy in Supreme Court.” It may be recalled that the PTI founder and his wife Bushra Bibi filed an appeal against the verdict on Feb 23. They were sentenced on Feb 2 to seven years in jail each for contracting nikkah while the latter was still observing iddat. The decision was announced by senior civil judge Qudratullah on the complaint filed by Bushra’s former husband Khawar Fareed Maneka. He also imposed Rs500,000 fine each on the couple.