ISLAMABAD: Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb will take up former prime minister Imran Khan’s plea challenging in-camera proceedings of the cipher trial at Adiala jail today (Wednesday).

Mr Khan in his petition also challenged his de-novo trial in jail and subsequent developments, including the framing of charges and a gag order on the media.

On the other hand, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a detailed judgement explaining reasons for scrapping the earlier round of proceedings of the Special Court (Official Secrets Act) due to a lack of transparency and openness. The court links the open court proceedings with the independence of the judicial system.

The bench noted that the Islama­bad administration, upon the trial court judge’s request, initiated the process to hold the proceedings in jail as it informed the interior ministry about a police report expressing certain apprehensions related to law and order if the trial were to be conducted in the courtroom. Based on this information, the law ministry issued a notification for conducting Mr Khan’s trial in jail.

NAB files fresh reference against ex-PM, his wife over retaining Saudi-gifted jewellery set

The detailed order stated that on Nov 8, 2023, the chief commissioner re-initiated the process of conducting the proceedings in jail. The interior ministry referred the letter to the law ministry, which forwarded a summary to the federal cabinet, seeking its approval.

It noted that before the issuance of the notification for conducting the trial in jail, the Special Court judge had not passed any judicial order for holding the proceedings or trial in jail, against which a revision could be preferred. It noted the judge conducted the proceeding in-camera and he “ought to have realised that an open trial is the minimum requisite of a fair trial, and that the manner in which he conducted the proceedings was destructive of the principles of fair trial”.

Toshakhana reference

In a related development, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday filed a fresh reference against PTI founder Mr Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in an accountability court for retaining a jewellery set received from the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman against undervalued assessment.

According to a copy of the reference available with Dawn, the anti-graft watchdog has accused that during his term as prime minis-

ter Mr Khan and his wife had received a total of 108 gifts from different heads of states and foreign dignitaries.

Of these gifts, they allegedly retained 58 gifts against an undervalued amount over Rs142 million.

It said the NAB chairman delegated the powers to authorise an inquiry on the subject matter to the director general of NAB, Rawalpindi on Aug 1, 2022.

The DG authorised an inquiry on Aug 5, 2022.

Subsequently, the inquiry was upgraded to an investigation on July 14, 2023.

According to Toshakhana procedures, all gifts received by go-vernment/public functionaries, irrespective of their prices, must be reported and deposited immediately in Toshakhana of the cabinet division.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2023