Imran seeks Gen Faiz’s ‘open trial’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Wednesday demanded an open trial of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General (R) Faiz Hameed who was taken into custody by the military on charges of abuse of power and violating the Army Act. The former prime minister, who was removed from office through a parliamentary vote in 2022, said the open trial would benefit the country and allow it to prosper.

“I demand an open trial of Faiz Hameed with media given access to cover it,” said the ex-premier during an informal interaction with journalists at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail where he has been incarcerated for over a year in different cases ranging from corruption to terrorism.

Following the former spymaster’s arrest, the ex-premier had distanced himself from the retired general, who served as DG ISI during his tenure, claiming that he has no connection with him.

“If the military wants the accountability of General Faiz, [then] it should proceed and do it,” Khan said, asserting that it was the army’s internal matter.

Welcoming the development, the former premier said it was good that army launched the process of internal accountability. However, he urged the military to ensure that the process of accountability should be across the board.

Responding to a question relating to his past engagement with the former spymaster, Khan said that while he was the premier, he did not want to remove General Faiz from his office amid regime change in Afghanistan.

The embattled PTI founder further detailed he had exchanged hot words with the former army chief, General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa over the issue of removing the former ISI boss from his post, adding Bajwa removed Faiz for the sake of his extension. “I repeatedly asked Bajwa not to remove Faiz but to no avail,” he added.

Meanwhile, strongly reacting to the PTI founding chairman Imran Khan’s demand, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar Wednesday said the PTI founder’s demand for an open trial of Lt Gen (R) Faiz Hameed is interference in army affairs.

“The founder chairman of PTI is constantly trying to make this matter controversial with his statements,” the minister said in a statement issued here in reaction to Imran’s media talk earlier in the day. The minister contended that the founder chairman PTI, who gave a statement in defence of Faiz Hameed today, should answer the case of 190 million pounds.

Such statements of the founding chairman of PTI, he emphasized, prove that he (Imran) is suffering from serious anxiety and confusion. “By not declaring Faiz Hameed’s case as an internal matter of the army, the PTI founder chairman has proved that Faiz Hameed was indeed an asset of the founder chairman,” the minister maintained.

Tarar pointed out that the founder chairman sometimes calls Faiz Hameed an asset, sometimes a hero and sometimes a zero, which makes it seem that he is suffering from acute mental problems. In this, the minister noted, it is also found that the founding chairman of PTI has no qualms about using people and throwing them away. He contended it proves that the founding chairman has expertise in ditching those who support him.

Speaking in Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Imran Khan and Barister Gohar himself have said that Gen Faiz’s trial is Pak army’s internal affair.

He said no general has ever been tried in an open court in Pakistan. However, he said, if it comes to Imran’s trial, it would open. The nation should know what he had been doing as prime minister, how he had been conspiring and what was his role in May 9 violence, the minister added.

Meanwhile, the hearing of 190 million pounds reference has been postponed by an accountability court for the eighth consecutive time till August 23.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana conducted the hearing, during which PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were presented in the courtroom. Barrister Ali Zafar represented Imran and Bushra. He informed the court that Imran and Bushra’s counsel was engaged in the Islamabad High Court.

In response, NAB Prosecutor Muzaffar Abbasi stated that defence lawyers had not cross-examined Investigating Officer Umar Nadeem for the eighth time, accusing them of using delaying tactics. He said the Islamabad High Court had ordered the trial to proceed, and if the cross-examination was not conducted within three attempts, the right to defence might be forfeited. The NAB has not yet filed a request to forfeit the right to defence. He urged the court to compel the defence lawyers to complete the cross-examination. The hearing was put off due to unavailability of defence lawyers.