Islamabad:
A bank of the Supreme Court has quoted to listen to the appeals presented by former Prime Minister Imran Khan against the dismissal of his bail requests in cases of disturbances on May 9 by the Superior Court of Lahore (LHC).
A division bank comprising the president of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJ) Yahya Afridi and Judge Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui will assume the appeals, eight in total, at 9:30 am today (Tuesday).
A LHC division bank led by Judge Shahbaz Ali Rizvi on June 24 said that Imran was supposedly involved in the conspiracy to attack the military facilities in case of its arrest, a conspiracy, which the Government affirms, was executed after the arrest of the founder of PTI on May 9, 2023.
Imran Khan approached the Apex court on July 26 against the LHC order, arguing that the Prosecutor’s Office adopted three different positions to link it with the alleged conspiracy of May 9, 2023 incidents of disturbances, all of which were rejected by different courts.
When commenting on the order, the petition said that the Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly could not establish any credible link between Imran Khan and the alleged occurrence narrated in the FIR.
According to the petition, the Prosecutor’s Office in its attempts to link the petitioner with the alleged acts of conspiracy and support resorted to three conflicting versions, each of which differs in terms of the alleged date, time, location and incitement witnesses.
He said that the three versions have been judicially incredulous by the Anti -Terrorist Courts (ATC) or by the LHC. He pointed out that during the procedures for the bail prior to the arrest before the ATC-III in Lahore, the Prosecutor’s Office lately affirmed that a police officer, Hassam Afzal, allegedly listened to a conspiracy in Zaman Park.
He said that this event occurred two days before May 9, on May 7. The Prosecutor’s Office also stated that another Astat Kamal inspector heard the embedding in Chakri’s rest area five days before the occurrence, as of May 4, 2023.
“However, this version was discredited due to the lack of prosecution to justify the late dissemination of such critical information and, consequently, was rejected by the wise special judge ATC-III in Lahore, who confirmed the bonds prior to the arrest of the petitioner on March 1, 2024 in FIR No 366/23 and 1078/23”.
The petition said that after the collapse of its first narrative, the Prosecutor’s Office advanced a second version during the criminal review hearing before the LHC, arguing that Imran Khan allegedly prompted the acts through media statements.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office could not produce any objectable or incriminatory material to corroborate this statement, which led to the LHC to reject this version as well.
Subsequently, the State sought to trust the statements of three new witnesses, including the leaders of PTI Sadaqat Abbasi and Wasiq Qayyum, as new evidence to support its third version of the conspiracy.
“This final attempt was also found with desire and was expressly incredulous by the ATC-I, Rawalpindi, which unloaded the coacusada Bushra Imran through a well reasoned order dated 20.08.2024.
“The continuous breach of the Prosecutor’s Office to present coherent, consistent and credible evidence after multiple opportunities clearly brings the case within the scope of an additional investigation, which makes the petitioner be entitled to the granting of the bail after arrest under section 497 (2) CRPC 1898,” he said.
The petition stated that despite the rejection of the three fiscal versions by several competent forums, the LHC on June 24 declined Imran’s bond while trusting only in the statements of the two police officers: Inspector Asmat Kamal and thus Hassam AFZAL.
