Sisters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan staged a sit-in outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), demanding a new hearing date in the Al-Qadir Trust case, it was reported on Monday.
Speaking to the media, Aleema Khan said the protest would continue until a fresh date for the case hearing is announced. “We will not leave until a new date is given,” she asserted.
Aleema Khan alleged that Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are being kept in solitary confinement, raising concerns about the former prime minister’s health, particularly an issue related to his eyesight.
She questioned the delay in court proceedings, stating, “If the court is not being held, where will we get justice from?”
She further claimed that they were informed Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar was occupied with official engagements, including meetings and a dinner for a visiting Turkish delegation, leading to delays in fixing the hearing date.
“What kind of justice system is this? We are being deprived of justice,” she remarked.
Last month, the Islamabad High Court had allowed Barrister Salman Safdar, counsel for Imran Khan, to meet his client at Adiala Jail in connection with the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.
A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif, had also declared petitions filed by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi seeking suspension of their sentences admissible for hearing.
During the hearing, Barrister Safdar requested the court to grant him permission to meet the former prime minister. He said that it was the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) objective to prolong his client’s imprisonment.
Barrister Safdar said that the NAB’s attitude towards the PTI founder was not professional, but personal. “My client was arrested in connection with the case on May 9. The Supreme Court later acquitted him,” he said, adding that Imran had lost vision in his right eye.
Speaking on the occasion, the NAB’s prosecutor said it was Barrister Safdar’s claim that the case could be wound up in 10 minutes. “If that is the case, then what is stopping him from giving arguments in the case?” he questioned.
The chief justice said the court did not accept NAB’s plea in which it had argued that the petitions submitted by the couple, seeking suspension of their sentences, were inadmissible for the hearing. “The court declares these petitions admissible for the hearing,” the CJ remarked.
