Imran Khan complains about difficulties in getting legal help

Islamabad: Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday complained about the difficulties in seeking legal help to prepare for a case before appearing in the Supreme Court.

Khan had his first courtroom interaction with Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa when he appeared before the apex court through a video link in a case about changes in the anti-corruption law.

A five-member Supreme Court larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Isa and including Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi heard the intra-court appeal (ICA) by the government against annulment of certain changes in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws. Khan had challenged the tweaks in the NAB laws by the previous government, and the top court in September last year had accepted his plea that led to the reopening of dozens of cases of alleged corruption against leading politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Khan, 71, appeared as a petitioner through video link in the case from the Adiala Jail of Rawalpindi, where he has been incarcerated. He was arrested last August and kept first in the Attock Jail and now in Adiala Jail. This was the first time that he came face to face with the chief justice, though digitally, with the judge he had tried to remove from court while heading the government.

The Dawn News reported that when Khan was allowed to speak, Chief Justice Isa asked him whether he would like to present his arguments himself or have his lawyer Khawaja Haris argue on his behalf.

The ex-premier then sought 30 minutes to present his arguments. “I was neither provided with material to prepare nor am I allowed to meet lawyers. I am in solitary confinement,” he lamented.

The PTI founder said, “The biggest robbery was committed in the country on February 8.”