Toshakhana case: Court dismisses ECP's plea for early hearing

Islamabad district and sessions court on Tuesday dismissed a plea for immediate hearing of the Toshakhana case against the former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan, ARY News reported.

The plea was moved by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the court of additional sessions judge Zafar Iqbal.

The former prime minister was asked to appear before the court at 8:30 in the morning, but he did not appear. At the outset of the hearing, Imran Khan’s lawyers Khawaja Haris and Faisal Chaudhry opposed the immediate hearing of the case and termed it as a waste of money and time.

On the last hearing, the court ordered to hear the case on April 29, then what is the need of an immediate hearing, he asked.

Haris said they were preparing for the case as per the scheduled hearing on April 29 and added whoever has filed plea against Imran Khan wants to ‘target’ him.

The court after hearing arguments reserved the verdict for 10 minutes. After the resumption of the hearing, the court rejected ECP’s plea for an immediate hearing.

Now the hearing will be held as per schedule on April 29.

ECP verdict

In the written judgment, the ECP said: “As per the statement of Imran Khan he had purchased the gifts from Toshakhana paying 21.564 million rupees while the Cabinet Division said that the gifts had a value of 107.943 million.”

“The amount in his bank account was around half of the value of the state gifts. Imran Khan was bound to declare the cash and bank details in his returns but he didn’t declare it,” ECP decision read.

“Imran Khan being declared disqualified and unseated from his National Assembly seat,” the ECP said, adding: “He has been disqualified under Article 63, 1(P), over submitting a false statement and declaration”.