Toshakhana case: ECP gives Imran until Sept 7 to reply

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Monday gave another week to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to submit his reply in the Toshakhana case and now hearing will be held on Sept 7.

As the ECP five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, here resumed hearing, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, who appeared on behalf of PTI chairman, pleaded for more time to file reply.

He explained to the bench that the main lawyer for the PTI Chairman, Barrister Senator Ali Zafar, was in Lahore and he was not able to consult him with regard to the case. The lawyer said he will try his best to submit the reply on the next hearing.

To this, the CEC maintained that everything is part of the record and thus it must not take so much time to submit the reply. However, PTI chairman was given more time and the hearing was adjourned till September 7.

National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf earlier this month sent reference to the ECP seeking disqualification of PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan in Toshakhana case, in which it has been stated that Imran Khan did not declare the gifts taken from Toshakhana in his statement of assets. He did not share the details of the amounts by selling the gifts in the statement.

Imran, while responding to the Toshakhana controversy during an informal media chat, had said that those were his gifts, so it was his choice whether or not to retain them while he had accused his rivals of taking away gifts from the Toshakhana in disregard to the rules.