ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the request for an “immediate” meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan, and issued a notice to the government for tomorrow.
The SC had fixed for hearing 13 petitions related to Imran and his spouse Bushra Bibi, and said PTI’s memorandum seeking jail visitation rights for the party founder has been forwarded to the relevant executive authorities for consideration under the law.
Imran has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 no-confidence vote.
The request for the meeting, submitted by senior PTI leader Latif Khosa, was rejected by a two-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.
The bench observed that such an order could not be passed without hearing the other side. Hence, a notice was then issued to the government for tomorrow (Tuesday).
Addressing Khosa during the hearing, CJP Afridi said that “we have to overcome the hurdle of the maintainability of the application”. “Keep in mind that you have cases pending in other courts,” he remarked.
“We believe that the case has become infructuous,” he said, recalling an Aug 24, 2023 order “against which the case was filed”.
The court “cannot issue any order regarding the meeting without issuing notice”, CJP Afridi added.
The SC also ordered the formation of a three-member bench to hear appeals against the PTI founder’s acquittal in the cipher case.
A three-member bench has also been ordered to hear appeals against the acquittal of PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the same case. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had acquitted Imran and Qureshi in the cipher case on June 3, 2024.
Hearing Imran’s bail petition in the Al-Qadir University Trust case, in which the former premier was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2025, the court dismissed the PTI founder’s bail plea as infructuous.
According to a supplementary cause list issued last week, the petitions fixed for hearing for Monday included the Punjab government’s appeal against the granting of bail to the PTI founder and his wife.
Further, Imran’s appeal against the case registered against him under the Official Secrets Act and the National Accountability Bureau case against the ex-premier in relation to the Al-Qadir University Trust was also fixed for hearing.
