The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday adjourned for 10 days the hearing of appeals by PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi against their convictions in the £190 million reference, and directed authorities to arrange Khan's meetings with his legal team.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar said it wanted formal arguments on the appeals to begin, recalling that counsel had undertaken on June 29 not to seek further adjournments. In the case, also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, an accountability court sentenced Khan to 14 years and Bushra Bibi to seven years in prison.
Lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa told the court he had not been given access to Khan. The chief justice asked Islamabad Advocate General Naveed Hayat Malik whether a meeting could be arranged within days, and he said it could. Barrister Salman Safdar said he had been denied access to Khan for seven months and to Bushra Bibi for 11 months, adding that the case involved about 3,500 pages of documents and testimony from 35 witnesses that needed preparation.
Safdar also argued an application seeking medical treatment for Bushra Bibi, citing a serious eye infection, and said Khan's eyesight had improved somewhat but his blood pressure remained unstable.