IHC reserves verdict on pleas against Imran's jail trial in £190m, Toshakhana cases

• Imran seeks nullification of jail trials on same grounds as cipher case. 
• PTI boss indicted in Toshakhana case; yet to be indicted in £190m case. 
• Judge Bashir holding jail trial of PTI founder in both corruption cases.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved its verdict on the pleas challenging Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan in the infamous £190 million and Toshakhana cases, following the completion of arguments from all parties.

The former PTI chairman had moved the high court — which last year declared his trial in jail in the cipher case null and void — to annul the trial in jail in the two corruption cases as well.

Imran and several others are facing charges of corruption of billions of rupees in the £190 million case also involving a property tycoon, and charges of corrupt practices involving the state gift repository in the Toshakhana case.

An accountability court on January 9 indicted Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi in the Toshakhana reference filed against them by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), while their indictment in the £190 million case was deferred last week after the former premier changed his legal team.

Judge Bashir is currently holding the jail trial of the PTI founder in both cases with the approval of the federal cabinet, but Khan has challenged the jail trial before an IHC bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri.

Today, while giving arguments on the petitions seeking annulment of Imran’s jail trial in the two cases, his lawyer in the IHC, Advocate Shoaib Shaheen said: "We do not say that the jail trial cannot be conducted but following the parameters [for it] is necessary."

He said that the jail trial is held in extraordinary circumstances, which requires a judicial order in which the relevant judge states those extraordinary circumstances.

Meanwhile, the attorney general for Pakistan maintained that the trial of NAB cases is being conducted in an open court at the Adiala prison, where the deposed prime minister remains incarcerated.

Advocate Shaheen contended that NAB had no authority to write to the federal government seeking a jail trial.

"If NAB had any reasons, it should have placed them before the relevant court and then the court would have decided after looking at these circumstances," he said.

The lawyer added that a two-member bench of the IHC Court had given a decision on the same legal point in the cipher case, which has not been overruled by the Supreme Court and is binding on this court as well.

At this, the IHC CJ said that there is no doubt that the jail trial is conducted in extraordinary circumstances. Later, the court reserved its verdict on Khan's pleas seeking annulment of his jail trial in two corruption cases.