PTI chief expresses no confidence in judge hearing Toshakhana case

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has expressed lack of confidence in additional sessions judge Humayun Dilawar, who is hearing the Toshakhana case against him.

The PTI chief counsel Barrister Gohar said a Facebook account in the judge’s name published posts against the former prime minister which shows bias in the case The additional sessions judge confirmed presence of his Facebook account but refuted publishing any such posts. 

During the hearing, the judge asked if forensic analysis should be conducted of the social media posts. He asked if the lawyer saw the posts on his Facebook account.

Barrister Gohar replied that he saw them on his account before they were locked. He also presented pictures to the court saying that disparaging remarks were made against the PTI chief.  The judge asked to present the pictures to a relevant for verification.

On July 8, Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Court (West) Judge Humayun Dilawar announced starting criminal proceedings against Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case after rejecting the PTI chief’s plea against maintainability of a complaint filed by the ECP.

A day earlier, the trial court rejected the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) request to include more people to the list of witnesses. Accepting the PTI chief’s request, the court has also stopped the public prosecutor from representing the election commission while summoning two prosecution witnesses.

Judge Humayun Dilawar resumed hearing on Monday as ECP’s counsel Saad Hasan gave arguments in support of adding four new witnesses to the list. He said three officers deputed to the Cabinet Division were included in the list of witnesses in October 2022. These include Cabinet Division’s Secretary Administration Arshad Mahmood and Deputy Secretary Coordination Faisal Tehsin.

He said the ECP was not requesting to present a new document in the court.  The counsel requested the court to add these people to the list of witnesses. The court, however, rejected the request. The court stopped the public prosecutor from representing ECP in the case.

Separately, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) heard the PTI’s reply to the objections raised by the court’s registrar to a petition filed by Imran Khan against the trial court’s order.