Former PM Khan asks Pakistan Chief Justice to recuse himself from hearing his case
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a written statement to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asked Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa to resign from the panel of judges hearing his case, saying the step was in keeping with the principle of impartiality.
Khan filed his response in the court in a case over amendments to Pakistan’s Accountability Act. The former prime minister had approached the Supreme Court in 2022 to oppose some changes to the law that year, alleging that they were made to benefit influential defendants and legitimize corruption.
In his response, Khan cited a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that Justice Isa, who was the Chief Justice at the time, should not hear the case against Khan in order to maintain impartiality. The reason cited by the Supreme Court was that Justice Isa had also filed suit against Khan as an individual in the same case.
“The judgement noted that in order to uphold the principles of impartiality and fairness, it would be in the interest of justice if Justice Qazi Faez Isa (then Chief Justice, now) did not hear the matter pertaining to me,” Khan replied.
Justice Isa was also the subject of a presidential complaint filed by the Imran Khan-led government in May 2019, which alleged that he had acquired several properties in London in the name of his wife and children between 2011 and 2015 but failed to list them in his asset statement.
Justice Isa disputed the allegations, arguing that he was not the direct or indirect beneficial owner of the properties. The allegations were subsequently quashed by the Supreme Court, but Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has repeatedly called on Justice Isa to recuse himself from cases involving the cricketer-turned-politician.
Khan has been jailed since August last year after being convicted in several cases ahead of February’s general elections, and is also fighting dozens of other cases that he and his party say are politically motivated to stop him returning to power.
In recent months, Pakistani courts have suspended Khan’s prison sentences in two cases involving the illegal acquisition and sale of state gifts and overturned his conviction for leaking state secrets.
But he remains in prison after being convicted in a separate case and a court ruled his 2018 marriage was illegal. Khan is also facing trial on anti-terrorism charges related to the violence last May.
