ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Monday expressed no confidence in the Islamabad High Court chief justice, a day before the latter is going to decide the fate of former prime minister’s plea challenging Toshakhana gifts trial.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had on May 11 stayed the proceedings of the trial court seized with the Toshakhana case, a day after the latter indicted Mr Khan for concealing the details of state gifts.

Following his indictment, the PTI chairman accused trial court judge Humayun Dilawar of being biased. His petition seeking transfer of the case is also pending before the IHC chief justice.

Justice Farooq had on June 23 reserved his decision on Mr Khan’s petition challenging the Toshakhana trial proceedings. The verdict is scheduled to be anno­unced on Tuesday (today).

The case is based on a complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The ECP accused Mr Khan of concealing “his assets relating to Tosha­khana gifts retained by him, particularly in years 2018 and 2019 when he was the prime minister, in the statements of assets and liabilities filed for years 2017-18 and 2018-19”.

In his petition, the PTI chief assailed the IHC chief justice for not granting him permission to “drive the vehicle inside the court”, not relaxing the requirement of biometric verification and not declaring his May 9 arrest illegal.

He also referred to the case of his alleged daughter Tyrian-White Jade Khan and said: “An important case was decided by two learned judges [Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir] but the learned chief justice did not allow that to be published and when one of the learned judges directed the office to upload the judgement, it was taken down after issuance of a press release.”

As per the press release, following the office order of reconstitution of the said bench, the incomplete judgement had been uploaded on the website, which was removed by the order of the IHC chief justice, the petition said, adding that “no justification was given at all including that once decided, bench cannot be constituted for a decided case”.

It went on to state that the IHC chief justice did not permit shifting of sessions court from F-8 to the Federal Judicial Complex of Islamabad for hearing of Mr Khan’s cases and referred it to another IHC judge who had extended the facility of change of venue of the court due to extreme security threat.

The petition argued that the proceeding before IHC chief justice “would raise serious questions about his ability to consider the issues dispassionately and impartiality” and requested him to recuse himself from hearing Mr Khan’s petitions.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023