ISLAMABAD: Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar was Friday made an officer on special duty (OSD) after he requested the Islamabad High Court through a letter to do so because of threats to him.
According to sources, ADSJ Humayun Dilawar was made an OSD after he cited threats to his life on return from the UK where he had gone for training. Dilawar wrote a letter to the Islamabad High Court chief justice, fearing any unpleasant incident in his court after his verdict in the Toshakhana case. Dilawar also faced protests by the PTI workers and activists during training in the UK where they tried to reach him but the police pushed them back.
The Humayun Dilawar-led trial court had sentenced the PTI chief to three years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on August 5.
A notification issued by the high court’s additional registrar said, “The honourable chief justice of this court has been pleased to make the following transfer/posting of ADSJ working in the Islamabad Judicial Service, in the public interest.”
Earlier in the day, a two-member IHC bench — comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri — heard the PTI’s plea seeking suspension of Khan’s conviction by the trial court’s Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Humayun Dilawar.
The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) legal counsel Amjad Pervez did not appear before the bench, citing ill health. His assistant asked the bench for an adjournment saying, “For the last eight months, we never sought an adjournment.”
He said doctors had suggested Pervez bed rest.
At this, Justice Farooq said, “The request for suspension of sentence is now at a critical stage. It is the matter of bail.” He said arguments would have been completed in 15 to 20 minutes. “We can also do what the trial court did, but we will not.”
The court ordered adjourning the hearing till Monday. At this, PTI counsel Latif Khosa remarked, “One person has been in jail for 20 days. Will [you] keep the PTI chairman in jail for another three days?”
Khosa protested as he suggested the junior lawyer could present the ECP’s case. “Your junior judge has sanctioned someone to jail and they are not giving their arguments, then can’t you suspend the punishment?” Khosa pleaded the court. “If you are satisfied with their arguments on Monday, then you can send him back to jail,” he requested. CJ Farooq replied: “We are here to hear this case. We could also repeat what the trial court did. [But] it is our job to run the system. We will view the trial court proceedings from an administrative standpoint. We are scheduling [the hearing] for Monday.”
“Then we will not appear,” said Khosa, recording a strong protest against the court.
“If you fail to appear, then we will decide the matter on the basis of the record available,” responded CJ Farooq, adding that “what the trial court had done was wrong”.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. We will not do what the trial court did.”
Upon this, Khosa walked out of the courtroom while the court issued orders to resume hearing the case on August 28 (Monday).
Following the PTI chief’s arrest, it is the third petition the party had filed. Earlier, the Supreme Court had raised questions about the verdict issued by Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Humayun Dilawar, noting that prima facie there were serious defects in the trial court’s verdict. The SC had, nonetheless, observed that it would wait for the IHC to issue a verdict on a petition filed by the former prime minister against the trial court’s order.