Adiala superintendent alleges that lawyer Salman Safdar had tried to mislead the court over the matter
ISLAMABAD:
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s lawyer and Adiala Jail authorities on Monday made contradictory claims about the signing and provision of powers of attorney (PoA) required to represent the couple before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in connection with the £190 million case.
The superintendent of Adiala jail, in a written reply submitted to the IHC, stated that the action plans signed by Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi had been prepared on June 16 in accordance with the court orders and that his lawyer, advocate Salman Safdar, had been informed on the same day through a text message.
He alleged that lawyer Salman Safdar had tried to mislead the court on the matter.
According to the response, Safdar was informed via text message that the signed action plans were available for collection. The prison authorities also attached a screenshot of the text message with their response presented in court.
The superintendent further maintained that despite being informed, the legal team representing Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi deliberately failed to collect the documents before the hearing held on June 18.
Responding to the prison authorities’ claims, lawyer Salman Safdar strongly disputed the superintendent’s version of events.
Safdar said The express PAkGazette that members of his legal team visited Adiala jail five or six times in the last four weeks to obtain the powers, but were not provided with the documents.
He claimed that lawyers Sarmad, Ahmad Maysar and Khalid Yousaf approached Adiala jail more than five times to obtain the documents.
According to Safdar, repeated unsuccessful attempts forced the legal team to file a contempt petition before the Islamabad High Court on the morning of June 15. “After filing the contempt petition, it was reported for the first time that we could get a power of attorney executed only by Imran Khan Sahib and not by Bushra Bibi. This was unacceptable to us,” Safdar said.
