Islamabad, Counsel for former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Wednesday sought an adjournment in the 190 million-pound Al Qadir case, a day before its hearing in the high court, a media report said.
Khan and Bushra, who were sentenced to 14 and seven years in jail respectively in the case last year, had challenged their sentences in the Islamabad High Court . Earlier this week, was set as the date for hearing the appeals against the conviction.
In an application filed before the IHC, Barrister Salman Safdar, Secretary General of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Salman Akram Raja, and Sarmad Muneeb said they were not authorised to argue the main appeals against the conviction, the Dawn newspaper reported.
They said their engagement was limited to arguing applications for suspension of sentence.
The lawyers said that despite repeated efforts, the authorities at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, where the former first couple is imprisoned, had not facilitated meetings with the clients to receive instructions or execute fresh powers of attorney.
“The undersigned expresses inability to proceed further in the absence of proper instructions, formal engagement, and requisite Power of Attorney,” the report said, citing the application.
The counsel sought an adjournment for the main appeals, fixed for hearing on Thursday.
The 190 million pound case pertains to allegations linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a welfare organisation established in 2018. The trust, which runs a university outside Islamabad, is accused of being used as a front to receive land worth millions of dollars from a real estate tycoon.
According to charges, the donations were made in exchange for the former premier’s administration using repatriated funds from the UK to pay fines on behalf of the businessman, instead of depositing the amount into the national exchequer.
Khan denied the allegations during the trial, maintaining that neither he nor his wife derived any financial benefit from the trust or related transactions.
Earlier this week, the IHC rejected Khan and Bushra’s petitions seeking the suspension of their sentences in the case.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
