In a blow to former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, an Islamabad district and sessions court on Saturday upheld the maintainability of the criminal complaint filed against him on charges of hiding the details of Toshakhana gifts.

Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar, who had earlier rejected the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s objections about the admissibility of the case, announced the verdict on Sunday, as reported by Dawn. The next hearing will take place on July 12, when the court will summon the witnesses for testimony to initiate trial proceedings for Khan.

This comes after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared the Toshakhana body of evidence held up against former prime minister Imran Khan “inadmissible”. The IHC had asked the sessions court to consider the ex-PM’s plea as pending and decide it afresh within seven days. The case was filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Imran Khan sought an exemption from attending the hearing, which was objected to by the counsel of the ECP, Saad Hasan. 

During the court proceedings, Judge Dilawar noted that Khan’s counsel Khawaja Haris had not appeared in a single hearing for three days and said that the court has been “very lenient” towards the former PM. 

He also expressed disappointment towards Khan’s counsel, saying that “such behaviour could not be expected from him”. He also rejected Khan’s current counsel Barrister Gohar Ali Khan’s request to adjourn court proceedings till Monday.

Responding to the verdict, Barrister Gohar said that he was “deeply upset by this kind of verdict” and remarked that the law was ‘murdered’. He also said that they would challenge the verdict by appealing to ‘higher forums’.

On May 10, the PTI chairman was indicted in the Toshakhana case by Judge Dilawar, who dismissed protests about the admissibility of the case.

About the Toshakhana case

The case relates to the charges that the former PM “intentionally hid” subtleties of the gifts he held from the Toshaskhana — a storehouse where presents gave to government authorities from unfamiliar authorities are kept — during his tenure as the prime minister, and proceeds from their revealed deals.

The PTI chief then moved toward the IHC, which had remained criminal procedures looking into the issue till June 8.

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