Imran and Asif were both given a punishment of Rs10,000 for requesting an adjournment.
The judge is annoyed by the defendant’s request for a postponement and believes the defamation case should be settled within the next three months.
Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Khawaja Asif, the defence minister, were both fined Rs 10,000 by an Islamabad sessions court on Saturday for requesting an adjournment in the former’s Rs 10 billion defamation lawsuit against the latter.
Additional Sessions Judge Umid Baloch lamented the 11-year delay in the case, noting that the statute required the decision on the damages claim to be made within 90 days.
He spoke after a request for adjournment on the day of the cross-examination.
Imran’s cross-examination by the attorneys was then postponed until February 11.
Because the defendant’s lawyer’s niece was getting married, Asif’s attorney Haider Rasool and his assistant begged for the case to be postponed during the hearing.
Asif’s counsel was not there, so his cross-examination could not be finished while the former prime minister was also unable to appear in person through video link.
The plea to adjourn the hearing was not rebuffed by Imran’s attorneys either.
The judge remarked that the matter had been pending for 11 years and that they were asking for a postponement of the cross-examination. He emphasised that the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) former chief justice had also stated in his ruling that the delay was the fault of both parties.
He noted that a claim for damages must be resolved within 90 days per the legislation.
I will adjourn the case until the date of your choosing by imposing a compensation of Rs. 20,000, the court declared.
The attorneys explained that a fine of up to Rs 5,000 can be imposed on an adjournment request in accordance with the legislation.
Instead of imposing a fine, they asked the court to grant them one final chance.
Imran would also be accessible for cross-examination on February 11 via video link, according to the attorneys’ assurances.
Imran and Asif were each fined Rs 10,000 by the court, and it instructed their attorneys to contest the verdict if they disagreed with it.
The hearing was then postponed until February 11th.
