Pak Supreme Court rejects ex-PM Imran's plea seeking stay on Toshakhana case trial

Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected for a second time on Wednesday former prime minister Imran Khan's plea seeking a halt on the trial court's criminal proceedings against him in the Toshakhana corruption case.

Despite approaching the Islamabad High Court (IHC) twice, the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Khan failef to get relief in the case pertaining to the concealment of details of state gifts.

A three-member apex court bench headed by Justice Yahya Afridi conducted the hearing on Wednesday.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawyer Khawaja Haris informed the court that the trial court has ordered the witnesses to be produced and that should they fail to do so, the right of defence will be lost, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

''The Islamabad High Court (IHC) took notice of four petitions but did not grant an injunction order,'' Haris told the court.

Justice Afridi urged the PTI chief's counsel to ''think more'' about the case, the report said.

''It would be better to wait for the high court's directives instead of having the Supreme Court issue orders,'' he said.

''Your application had become ineffective, but we still entertained it and issued orders. We do understand the situation. We had expected that the high court would issue better orders for you,'' Justice Afridi said.

''The relief you had requested for, we already granted (in the last hearing). I am surprised that you still approached the Supreme Court,'' he said.

Upon the judge's prompting, Haris also informed the court that the IHC is scheduled to conduct its hearing on the matter on Thursday, the report said.

''Our orders had stated that the high court should hear all petitions together,'' said Justice Afridi.

''Perhaps the relief that you are looking for from us, you will get from the IHC,'' he said, recommending that the PTI chief and his legal team wait for the high court's verdict.

Last week, the apex court declined to intervene in the criminal proceedings against Khan. It instead urged the IHC to decide the pending petitions filed by the PTI chairman.

In his petition before the apex court on Monday, Khan appealed for a stay against the recording of his statement under Section 342.

The petition contends that the trial, ongoing before District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar, should be halted till the IHC issues its final decision on the matter.

The case pertains to the allegations that Khan ''deliberately concealed'' details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana - a repository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept - during his time as the prime minister and proceeds from their reported sales.

Khan is accused of misusing his 2018 to 2022 premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than Rs 140 million (USD 635,000).

The Election Commission of Pakistan on October 21 last year, disqualified the former prime minister in the Toshakhana case for making ''false statements and incorrect declaration''.

In May, a trial court rejected Imran Khan's petition challenging the maintainability of the case and indicted the PTI chief, who denied all the allegations of misdeclaration of gifts.

Khan challenged the trial court's decision before the IHC, which sent the case back to the trial court for re-examination.

On July 8, the trial court concluded that the ECP's petition was maintainable and proceeded further against the former premier who then approached the Supreme Court for relief.

Khan is facing more than 140 cases across the country and faces charges like terrorism, violence, blasphemy, corruption and murder.

Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)