The Islamabad High Court on Thursday extended its stay order barring the trial court from conducting proceedings on the illegal Nikah case against former premier and PTI founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi till January 31. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petitions filed by Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi seeking dismissal of the Nikah in Iddat case against them. The counsel for the PTI founder and Bushra Bibi, Salman Akram Raja, did not appear in the court today. His assistant lawyer requested the court to adjourn the hearing till next week. However, Bushra’s ex-husband Khawar Maneka’s lawyer Raja Rizwan Abbasi pleaded with the high court to vacate its stay order on the trial court’s proceedings. He said that since the petitioners got such relief from the court, their lawyer won’t come to the court. The chief justice corrected the lawyer remarking ‘don’t say that. Three lawyers from the petitioners are already in the court’. Saying this, the court adjourned the hearing till January 31.

On January 16, a Rawalpindi trial court indicted former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi in the Iddat case. The charges against the couple were framed by senior civil judge Qudratullah on a complaint filed by Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband Khawar Farid Maneka under Sections 34 (common intention), 496 (marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage) and 496B (fornication) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Last week Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi filed a petition in the IHC seeking dismissal of the case against them. During its previous hearing on January 19, the Islamabad High Court stopped the trial court from recording the statements of the witnesses in the Nikah in Iddat case. The chief justice remarked during the hearing that “according to the law, if a marriage takes place during Iddat, it would be regularized later, if the marriage is not regular, then what is the crime in it?”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)