ISLAMABAD:A local court on Thursday testified to two witnesses in toshakhana criminal case against Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and adjourned further hearing till Friday.
Additional District and Session Judge Hammayun Dilawar heard the Toshakhana criminal against Chairman PTI. The associate lawyer filed a request seeking a one-day exemption from appearance to Imran Khan.
The lawyers of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Saad Hassan Advocate and Amjad Pervaiz opposed the request. Amjad Pervaiz read the list of Chairman PTI’s lawyers and said that not a single lawyer of the accused appeared today among it. The court instructed the senior lawyer of Imran Khan to appear before it and said that if any senior appeared, then the statement of the witnesses would be recorded.
Later, Imran Khan’s lawyer Khawaja Harris appeared before the court and took the position that his client couldn’t attend the proceeding as he had to appear in Lahore High Court. The judge remarked that the Toshakhana case couldn’t proceed on further exemption requests. He asked that under what grounds the court should accept the exemption from attendance.
Amjad Parvez Advocate said that the statements of the witnesses could be recorded in presence of the accused as per the law. The judge said that the defence could appoint a representative for the testimony of the witnesses and the court was granting them this this opportunity.
The judge asked the prosecution to present the witnesses for testimony as the court was appointing Khawaja Harris as representative of Imran Khan. Khawaja Haris Advocate said that you should write down my objection on this decision. Chairman PTI’s exemption request was accepted.
Witnesses Waqas Malik said that he was appointed as district election commissioner in 2022. He said that he was authorized by the ECP through a letter on November 7, 2022, to file a complaint against the Chairman PTI under Article 190. The tax statements have been submitted to the court as evidence.
He said that Imran Khan provided details of assets in the tax returns of 2018, 19, 20 and 2021 while the ECP published the same in the gazette.
The witness said that on August 2022, the speaker of the National Assembly sent the reference to the ECP and the commission issued a notice to the accused. In response to the notice, the accused submitted a reply to the Election Commission, he said.
Waqas Malik said that PTI chairman’s Toshakhana record was comprising 16 pages. Amjad Parvez Advocate intervened and said that the record was comprising 116 pages instead.
The witness said that the ECP wrote letters for the details of the accounts of the accused and the details of the Toshakhana from the Cabinet Division. He said that the accused took stance that he had received four gifts from Toshakhana in 2018-19 and submitted a challan of more than 21.5 million while the value of the gifts from Toshakhana was estimated to be more than 107 million. He said that the accused had told the ECP that the gifts have been sold for 58 million in 2018, 2019 and the money received from gifts was deposited in Bank Al Falah.
Waqas Malik said that according to PTI Chairman’s answer, gifts had been sold due to which the amount was not recorded on Form B in the same year 2019. He said that the ECP compared the statement of the accused with Toshakhana records and bank statements, and it was learned that Chairman PTI submitted the last challan for buying Tosha Khana gifts on January 22, 2019.
The witness said that a big deposit worth Rs30 million had been made in the bank account of Imran Khan during January 22, 2019 to June 30, 2019. He said Chairman PTI’s couldn’t prove the transaction worth Rs58 million with Bank Al-Falah by documents. The accused couldn’t present any receipt or record before the ECP during the hearing.
The witness said that the facts showed that Imran Khan gave false documents and statements to the Election Commission. Chairman PTI himself said that the three gifts were not disclosed in his statements in 2019-20, he said, adding that chairman PTI did not mention the transfer of gifts in Form B of the ECP.
The witness said that Chairman PTI told the Election Commission that 5 valuable gifts were taken from Toshakhana in 2020-21 and he declared all the five gifts as valuable gifts in Form B. However, the accused did not disclose the names and details of the gifts in Form B, he said and concluded his statement.
After this second witness and Deputy Director Confidential ECP Mossadaq Anwar said that he checked the bank statements of chairman PTI containing 231 pages. Anwar said that he was supervised the statements filed on behalf of Chairman PTI. After recording the statement of the witnesses the court adjourned case till tomorrow and asked the defence lawyer for cross examination of the witnesses.