£190m reference: Court gives PTI counsels 'last chance' to cross-examine witness

• Bushra's lawyer could not show up as he is "unwell".
• NAB prosecutor opposes request for adjourning hearing.
• Barrister Zafar, Panjutha may cross-examine witness: NAB.

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday gave lawyers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, a "last chance" to cross-examine the sole remaining witness in the £190 million settlement case.

The court expressed discontent over the defendant's counsels once again seeking to postpone the hearing without cross-examining the witness.

Accountability court judge Nasir Javed Rana heard the case at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi against the couple that is accused of causing billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer through embezzlement.

The lawyers apprised the court that Bushra’s counsel Usman Gul could not show up as he was unwell. Hence, they said, cross-examination could not be held from the investigation officer (IO), the last witness in the reference.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor opposed the request for adjourning the hearing, saying 12 letters of attorney had been submitted by the suspects' lawyers. Therefore, he was of the view that other senior lawyers present in the court could cross-examine the witness.

The accountability watchdog prosecutor said the last witness of the 190 million pound reference had been appearing for the previous 23 hearings, but he was not being cross-examined.

"Barrister Ali Zafar and Intazar Panjutha are present in the court. They should cross-examine the witness," the NAB official said.

He also said the Islamabad High Court (IHC) stopped the trial court from announcing a verdict, but not from carrying a trial.

Giving the last chance to cross-examine the witness, the court has adjourned the hearing till Wednesday (tomorrow).

IHC on September 18 stopped the accountability court from issuing a final verdict in the £190 million settlement case against incarcerated Imran and Bushra.

A two-member bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the couple's acquittal plea in the said case.

After hearing arguments, the IHC ordered the trial court to complete proceedings, however, it should not issue a final judgment.

The PTI founder on September 7 had filed a plea seeking acquittal in the £190 million case, after the Supreme Court's verdict in the NAB amendments case wherein the court accepted the intra-court appeals filed against last year's verdict which struck down the changes made to the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).

However, the accountability court on September 12 turned down Khan's acquittal plea in the £190 million case.

The decision was announced during the hearing in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail after arguments of all the parties were heard in the case.

During a hearing earlier, Khan and Bushra's lawyers did not appear before the court owing to their commitments in the Lahore High Court (LHC) due to which the reference's last witness Mian Umer Nadeem, also an investigating officer, couldn't be cross-examined.

The anti-graft body's prosecutor has said that Khan and Bushra's counsels are using delay tactics in the case.

What is the £190 million case?

As per the charges of the case, Imran Khan and other accused allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion — £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the agreement with a property tycoon.

Subsequently, then-prime minister Khan got approval for the settlement with the UK crime agency from his cabinet on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the details of the confidential agreement.

It was decided that the money would be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.

According to the NAB officials, Khan and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to build an educational institute, in return for striking a deal to give legal cover to the property tycoon's black money received from the UK crime agency.