Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be represented by state lawyers in the cipher case after their counsels failed to appear in court.
Malik Abdul Rehman will represent Khan while Hazrat Younus will represent Qureshi in the case and cross-examine the witnesses.
Both leaders are currently incarcerated in Adiala jail.
During the hearing today, Qureshi took the file from the state-appointed lawyer and hit it on the wall.
The development comes after the PTI founder and vice chairman’s counsels failed to appear in the special court, established under the Official Secrets Act, during the hearing of a petition filed by the prosecution seeking to terminate the right to cross-examination for the witnesses.
Special court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain reserved the verdict on the plea on Friday. Special Prosecutors Zulfikar Abbas Naqvi and Raja Rizwan Abbasi were present in court while the accused lawyers failed to appear.
Assistant lawyers Qamar Anayat Raja and Khalid Yusuf Chaudhary then represented the defence.
When the court inquired about the absence of the senior lawyers for the accused, Raja, filing an application to postpone the hearing, explained that senior counsel Sikander Zulqarnain was undergoing dental surgery and could not attend.
Naqvi expressed concern about the repeated adjournment requests, emphasising the inconvenience to witnesses who have come from Dubai for cross-examination.
Despite the explanation regarding the ongoing dental surgery, the court expressed frustration.
Prosecutor Naqvi questioned the regularity of lawyers’ appearances, suggesting a pattern of deliberate delays. Lawyer Raja defended the situation, saying that the adjournment request was not intentional but due to Sikandar’s dental surgery.
Judge Zulqarnain expressed anger, noting the previous adjournments and the importance of the case.
Later when the hearing resumed, Prosecutor Abbasi accused the defence of intentionally delaying the case, citing legal provisions.
Judge Zulqarnain instructed the assistant lawyers to contact the absent lawyers by 12:30pm and warned that proceedings would continue according to the law if they failed to do so.
The court reserved its decision after the expiration of the two-time deadline for the lawyers to appear and adjourned the hearing till today.
