Jail officials told to give Imran ‘befitting’ facilities

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday issued direction to the jail administration for providing the facilities to Imran Khan as provided in the law, but declined to suspend his sentence in the Toshakhana case before hearing both sides.

The court also sought a reply from the federal government and jail authorities on the points raised by the appellant including his detention in Attock jail instead of Adiala jail and denying access to his lawyers and family by Friday.

The PTI chairman had moved the appeal through his counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan against his conviction, urging the IHC to also suspend his imprisonment sentence till a final verdict on his appeal.

According to the appeal, the PTI chairman was about to challenge the court order on the maintainability of Toshakhana case in the Supreme Court, but judge Humayun Dilawar fixed the case for final arguments on August 5. It explained his counsel could not rebut the final arguments of the ECP lawyer, as the former was preparing for filing the challenge and moved another application for transfer of the matter to another court.

IHC refuses to suspend his sentence before hearing both sides

The appeal stated that the trial court convicted Mr Khan with a “pre-disposed mind”, and sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a fine of Rs100,000.

During the course of arguments, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, who was not the counsel in the appeal, accused the judge of handing down the judgement in insubordination to the directions issued by the IHC.

“The trial court judge was not neutral,” Mr Khosa said, alleging that the judge was “rewarded with a foreign visit” soon after the conviction.

Khawaja Haris Ahmed, lead counsel for Mr Khan in the Toshakhana case, remarked that he wanted to raise some legal issues. He said Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar did not provide adequate opportunity of defence to the accused.

He argued that the IHC had remanded the matter to the trial court for re-examining the maintainability and jurisdiction of the petition against his client, but the judge concluded the hearing without any reconsideration.

Mr Haris urged the court to suspend the sentence, but Justice Farooq remarked that the court would issue the notice first and would decide the suspension only after hearing the respondents.

While taking up the request for better facilities in jail for Mr Khan and his relocation from Attock to Rawalpindi’s central prison at Adiala, Justice Farooq directed the relevant authorities to provide facilities to the PTI chairman as per his entitlement.

“The petitioner shall be provided all the facilities to which he is entitled under the Jail Manual as well as other relevant laws,” the court order explained.

His counsel contended that Mr Khan was currently serving sentence awarded by the ADSJ and his committal orders were for Adiala jail, yet he was taken to Attock jail without any justification or basis. He argued that Mr Khan was neither even being afforded the class of prison as per his entitlement under the law nor access to family and lawyers.