ISLAMABAD: Additional District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar, who convicted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan and handed him down a three-year jail term in the Toshakhana case, was made an officer on special duty (OSD) on Friday.
The development came hours after Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Aamer Farooq observed that the trial court, which sentenced the former prime minister in the Toshakhana case, “did wrong”. According to a notification issued by the Islamabad High Court additional registrar, “The honourable chief justice of this court has been pleased to make following transfer/posting of ADSJ working in the Islamabad Judicial Service, in the public interest.”
Sources privy to the matter, however, claimed that ADSJ Dilawar was appointed as the OSD against a “newly-created post” at the IHC due to “security concerns”.
On August 5, the deposed prime minister — who was removed from office via a no-confidence motion in April last year — was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after being convicted in the Toshakhana case.
The ADSJ convicted Khan for corrupt practices related to the state gift depository — allegations which he denies.
The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was accused of misusing his premiership to buy and sell gifts in state possession that were received during visits abroad and worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000).
Rejecting Khan’s petition seeking inadmissibility of the case, ADSJ Dilawar sentenced the former prime minister to three years imprisonment. “Charges of misdeclaration of assets have been proven against PTI chairman,” he mentioned in his judgment.
He then handed Khan three years in jail along with a fine of Rs100,000, while issuing an arrest warrant for his immediate arrest.
In his short order, ADSJ Dilawar declared that the application against the reference filed by the ECP was maintainable on the ground that “nobody argued [the] application filed by [the] accused questioning [the] maintainability of [the] complaint… on the basis of earlier findings in [the] order dated 05.05.2023 and 08.07.2023 the said application is dismissed.”
“So, the charge against the accused has successfully been proven that [the] accused has committed [the] offence of corrupt practices by making and publishing false statements/declaration in respect of assets acquired by way of gifts from Toshakhana and disposed of during the years 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and making and publishing a false statement and submitting false and incorrect declaration in material particular relating to Form-8 for the year 2020-2021,” read the order. –Agencies
