ISLAMABAD  -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday turned down the ob­jections raised by prosecution over the maintainability of ap­peals of former prime minis­ter Imran Khan, his wife Bushra, and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi against their convictions in the cipher and Toshakhana cases.

A special bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurang­zeb conducted hearing in the ap­peals of Imran, Bushra and Qureshi against their convictions.

After rejecting the objections, the bench decided to hear the argu­ments of both sides on the merits of the appeals from Monday.

During the hearing, Imran Khan’s counsel Barrister Salman Safdar presented arguments against the objections raised by the Federal In­vestigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah over the maintain­ability of the appeals. 

Hamid Ali Shah, the special pros­ecutor, pointed out that since the original law, promulgated in 1923, did not provide the right of appeal, the Pakistan Criminal Law (Amend­ment) Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure were invoked to conduct the trial.

A provision of the Secrets Act (sec­tion 10) allowed an appeal to the extent of trial proceedings, but not against conviction, Shah added.

In reply to a query by Justice Fa­rooq whether there was no provi­sion of filing an appeal under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the prosecutor replied that the law was silent on the matter.

Hamid Ali Shah further con­tended that the two-member divi­sion bench cannot hear an appeal against conviction under the Spe­cial Secrets Act. On the other hand, Imran Khan’s counsel Barrister Sal­man Safdar argued that CrPC was applicable in this case. He further claimed that the CrPC would indeed apply to the Official Secrets Act, al­lowing for an appeal.

After hearing the arguments of both sides, the bench dismissed the prosecution’s objection and de­ferred the hearing of the case till March 18 for arguments on the mer­its of the appeals.