Update by Advocate Khalid Yousaf Chaudry

The appeal in the Al-Qadir case was filed in the Islamabad High Court on January 27, 2025. The application for bail/suspension of sentence is still in its early stages, as the court has not yet formally heard it. The court has not shown seriousness in fixing the date of hearing and the prosecution has been trying to calendar the hearing through constant tactics, which has led to repeated and indefinite adjournments of the proceedings. As a result, the appeal is currently in a state of procedural stasis. There have been ten hearings but on no date has the bench taken any serious action. This has never been done with any bail application in the judicial history of Pakistan. Failure to follow court policy on bail application The prevailing judicial policy, which requires bail applications to be heard and decided within 7 days of submission, is a non-compliance. No date has been fixed for hearing the bail applications of appellants Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi in the Al-Qadir case. The failure to decide the bail application violates the established policy and denies the appellants the right to a prompt judicial decision on the question of bail.