Justice Babar recuses himself from hearing PTI chief’s plea

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court’s Justice Babar Sattar on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a petition seeking the restoration of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s bail pleas dismissed by an accountability court over his absence in the 190-million-pound Al-Qadir Trust and Toshakhana cases.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq included Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri in place of Justice Sattar in the bench to hear the petition on November 6.

Earlier, the bench comprising Chief Justice Farooq and Justice Sattar heard the petition moved by the PTI chief in the two National Accountability Bureau cases.

The bench questioned the plaintiff’s counsel, Latif Khosa, whether his client would not be considered arrested in these cases, to which he replied that NAB had its own procedure under which its chairman issued a warrant for the arrest of an accused. He added that the NAB chairman himself had stated that Khan was not arrested in these cases.

NAB’s deputy prosecutor general, Sardar Muzzafar Abbasi, submitted that the arrest warrant for the PTI chief had been issued. The bench asked Abbasi why an investigation had not been started despite Khan being in jail custody. The prosecutor replied that legally NAB could not initiate an investigation in such circumstances. Justice Sattar asked why NAB was not investigating in its own cases when an accused was in custody.

Khosa said that another bench of the IHC had restored his client’s bail applications in six cases. Justice Sattar remarked that he had dissenting views with the bench that had passed the order. He recused himself from the case, saying that bench could hear this petition too. He observed that if a person has been arrested in a case, then he would also be considered arrested in other cases against him.