ISLAMABAD: The attorneys of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi on Tuesday got final likelihood to cross-examine the witness within the £190 million settlement case by an accountability court docket in Rawalpindi.
The defendant attorneys’ searching for to postpone the listening to with out cross-examining the witness made accountability court docket decide Nasir Javed Rana discontent, who was listening to the case on the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
The suspects, husband and spouse, are accused of inflicting billions of rupees loss to the nationwide exchequer by embezzlement.
The attorneys apprised the court docket that Bushra’s counsel Usman Gul couldn’t present up as he was unwell. Therefore, they stated, the investigation officer (IO) couldn’t be cross-examined — the final witness within the reference.
The Nationwide Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor opposed the request for adjourning the listening to, saying 12 letters of legal professional had been submitted by the suspects’ attorneys. Subsequently, he was of the view that different senior attorneys current within the court docket might cross-examine the witness.
The accountability watchdog prosecutor stated the final witness of the 190 million pound reference had been showing for the earlier 23 hearings, however he was not being cross-examined.
“Barrister Ali Zafar and Intazar Panjutha are current within the court docket. They need to cross-examine the witness,” the NAB official stated.
He additionally stated the Islamabad Excessive Courtroom (IHC) stopped the trial court docket from asserting a verdict, however not from carrying a trial.
Giving the final likelihood to cross-examine the witness, the court docket has adjourned the listening to until Wednesday (tomorrow).
The IHC on September 18 stopped the accountability court docket from issuing a closing verdict within the £190 million settlement case towards incarcerated Imran and Bushra.
A two-member bench of the excessive court docket comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the couple’s acquittal plea within the stated case.
After listening to arguments, the IHC ordered the trial court docket to finish proceedings, nonetheless, it mustn’t situation a closing judgment.
The PTI founder on September 7 had filed a plea searching for acquittal within the £190 million case, after the Supreme Courtroom’s verdict within the NAB amendments case whereby the court docket accepted the intra-court appeals filed towards final 12 months’s verdict which struck down the adjustments made to the Nationwide Accountability Ordinance (NAO).
Nonetheless, the accountability court docket on September 12 turned down Khan’s acquittal plea within the £190 million case.
The choice was introduced throughout the listening to in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after arguments of all of the events have been heard within the case.
Throughout a listening to earlier, Khan and Bushra’s attorneys didn’t seem earlier than the court docket owing to their commitments within the Lahore Excessive Courtroom (LHC) as a consequence of which the reference’s final witness Mian Umer Nadeem, additionally an investigating officer, could not be cross-examined.
The anti-graft physique’s prosecutor has stated that Khan and Bushra’s counsels are utilizing delay techniques within the case.
What’s the £190 million case?
As per the costs of the case, Imran Khan and different accused allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion — £190 million on the time — despatched by Britain’s Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) to the Pakistani authorities as a part of the settlement with a property tycoon.
Subsequently, then-prime minister Khan obtained approval for the settlement with the UK crime company from his cupboard on December 3, 2019, with out disclosing the main points of the confidential settlement.
It was determined that the cash can be submitted to the Supreme Courtroom on behalf of the tycoon.
In response to the NAB officers, Khan and his spouse obtained land price billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to construct an academic institute, in return for hanging a deal to provide authorized cowl to the property tycoon’s black cash acquired from the UK crime company.