PTI legal team calls verdict biased, to move higher courts

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legal team Saturday rejected the additional district and sessions judge decision and announced challenging it in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Speaking at a news conference here, Shoaib Shaheen, Barrister Gohar Khan and Naeem Haider Panjutha said the verdict in the Toshakhana case against Imran Khan was totally wrong and one-sided. They pointed out that Article 10A of the Constitution guaranteed an absolute and unqualified right to a fair trial and due process including an opportunity to defend the case, an adequate opportunity to prepare the defence, a right to a hearing, an independent and impartial judge, etc.

Shoaib Shaheen said that the decision against Imran Khan was nothing but a fixed match, as it was their right to defend and present witnesses. However, he said that when they sought time to bring the witnesses, the request was not granted and the verdict was given before the right to defend, adding that such a judge did not deserve to be given the chair of justice.

He said they would file a petition in the High Court and the apex court against the ‘biased and flawed decision’, lamenting that all unconstitutional acts were being done with the PTI workers, asking as to how the Islamabad police reached Lahore so quickly.

Shoaib said Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Yusuf Raza Gilani and Maryam Nawaz all had taken gifts from Toshakhana, adding that the only allegation against Imran was that the money was written in assets statement but no details were given in that form. However, he stated that there was no option for details in the form.

He asked as to why the police team reached the PTI Central Secretariat in G-8 in the wee hours, saying it shows the decision had already been written. The PTI legal team leader recalled that Justice Aamir Farooq had said that anybody’s right to defence could not be suspended. However, he regretted, they were deprived of this right.

Barrister Gohar Khan said the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had ordered for giving a decision in seven days. He added that he personally requested the judge to provide a level playing field, but he gave the decision by trampling their constitutional and legal rights.

Gohar appealed to the apex court to give them a chance to hear their case at the earliest.

Another PTI lawyer Naeem Haider Panjutha said the first injustice was done by conducting an unlawful operation in Zaman Park for 26 hours and again today, the PTI chairman was detained without arrest warrants.

He said they were busy with the case, and no name of any PTI lawyer was written in the order. He said at 12 o’clock it was said that the verdict would be pronounced at 12:30; how come a verdict containing 30 pages could be written so quickly, he raised a question.

Also, a PTI spokesperson said the verdict was a blot in the face of the justice system. The trial was conducted in the most absurd manner by a biased judge, the spokesperson alleged. In the worst trial in history, an attempt was made to kill justice at the hands of a biased judge, added the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the PTI announced a countrywide peaceful protest against what it alleged the flawed and biased judgment against the party chairman in Toshakhana case. The announcement came at the end of a PTI core committee’s emergency meeting, which was held with PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the chair. The forum discussed threadbare the decision of the ADSJ and the arrest of Imran Khan.

During the meeting, the core committee also appealed to the Supreme Court (SC) to hear the PTI review petition against the ‘biased decision’ without any delay to ensure early release of the PTI chairman, a statement issued here said.

It was said that in the light of instructions of PTI chairman, the party, under Shah Mehmood Qureshi, had started execution of the organisational and political strategy.

They said the nation had rejected the wrong and one-sided decision of a biased judge, who delivered a verdict according to a pre-arranged plan after a fake trial and got the PTI chairman arrested. The participants claimed there was great resentment and anger among the people of the country on the unlawful detention of Imran Khan under a well-thought-out plan.

The meeting stressed the need that the constitution gave the right to peaceful protest and the PTI workers would hold a peaceful nationwide protest against this ‘injustice’. The participants in the meeting vowed that they would leave no stone unturned to ensure early release of the country’s most beloved, most popular and trustworthy leader. The meeting decided that they would carry forward the PTI political and organisational strategies in the light of the PTI chairman’s instructions without being arrested by the ‘brutal imported government’.

Earlier, in a special video message, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the PTI workers were well aware of the anxiety in the nation, as today’s court decision was against the norms of justice. “Under Article 10A of the Constitution, they did not have the fundamental right to fair trial. We all have to continue the struggle for the release of PTI chairman. We also have to fight the legal battle and continue the political struggle, and we have to move forward peacefully,” he added.