Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have filed separate post-arrest bail pleas in the new Toshakhana case pertaining to a jewellery set gifted by the Saudi crown prince.
Mentioning the state and chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as parties to the case, both the applications filed through Barrister Salman Safdar under Section 9(b) of NA Ordinance 1999 and Section 497 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) request the accountability court to grant post-arrest bail to the couple to in “interest of justice and fair play”.
The development comes as both Imran and Bushra are on judicial remand in Adiala jail over the Toshakhana reference filed by the anti-graft watchdog last week.
The duo was arrested in the said case on July 13 hours after a district and sessions court in Islamabad acquitted them in the iddat case – also known as the un-Islamic nikah case – which was the last hurdle in the couple’s release from jail before the filing of the new cases.
The reference – which consists of two volumes – was filed by NAB investigation officer Mohsin Haroon and case officer Waqar Hassan in an accountability court.
The fresh reference will now be reviewed by the registrar of the accountability courts. After removing the objections, the reference will be sent to the administrative judge of the accountability court.
The administrative judge will then decide whether to conduct the hearing himself or transfer it to another accountability court. It should be noted that administrative Judge Nasir Javed Rana is already hearing the £190 million reference against the PTI founder.
Separately, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has fixed the hearing of the contempt case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and former Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
The ECP bench headed by Member Sindh Nisar Durrani will hear the contempt case on September 4. During the last hearing, Fawad Chaudhry appeared before the ECP and sought time to submit the reply.
