IHC annoyed over Islamabad AG's absence in court

Source: The Nation

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday expressed its annoy­ance over the absence of Advocate General (AG) Islamabad during the hearing in the appeals of former prime minister Imran Khan, his wife Bushra, and former foreign minis­ter Shah Mehmood Qureshi against their convictions in the cipher and Toshakhana cases.

A special bench of the IHC com­prising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb conducted hear­ing in their appeals.

During the proceeding, Justice Miangul Hassan asked that where is Advocate General Islamabad? It was informed that he has gone to Kara­chi. Expressing its anger over it, the bench said that it is terrible, he can go wherever he wants, but he should send his representative in the court.

The judge asked that should they write to the government that the advocate general is not providing proper assistance to the court.

Barrister Salman argued that de­spite demanded by the investigating officer, the cipher document was not given by terming the same as secret. He added that the investigating offi­cer also did not see the original doc­ument, then how did he investigate the matter? He contended that it is not written anywhere that the secret document should not be shown to the investigating officer of the case and the important thing is that the investigating officer presented the challan without seeing the original document and the trial court framed the charge sheet without seeing the original document.

The IHC Chief Justice asked that if the investigating officer asked for a document and he did not get it then what is his authority? Imran's coun­sel replied that in every criminal case, the local magistrate looks into such matter.

Justice Farooq asked that if the in­vestigating officer is not given any­thing, he can go to the magistrate? The lawyer said that the investigat­ing officer may say that he cannot frame the challan if he is not given the certain document.

Justice Miangul Hassan asked that what was the legal reason for not giving a copy of the cipher to the investigating officer? He add­ed that the trial court judge could have ordered under the Official Secrets Act that all the people should go outside from the court­room to see the document. Later, the bench deferred hearing of the case till today.