Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday virtually attended the proceedings of a sessions court in Islamabad while sitting at his PM Office, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Additional District & Sessions Court Judge Muhammad Adnan was hearing a petition which sought damages worth Rs10 billion from former defence minister Khwaja Asif for levelling allegations regarding non-transparency in the utilization of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust funds. 

Prime Minister Imran Khan attended the hearing of the case via e-court facility and virtually submitted his declaration to the court. 

The premier appreciated the e-court hearing saying the practice enabled the court to save its precious time and expenditures. He was of the view that the e-proceedings might help courts to dispose of cases on time. He lauded judiciary for introducing such a wonderful method. 

The prime minister told the court that people reposed trust in the SKMT. He said it was deplorable to use such public health oriented institutes for politics by levelling baseless and fabricated charges against such schemes. He said the Shaukat Khanum Trust was the only hospital in the world which was running a free cancer hospital.

Prime Minister Imran Khan hoped that the court would give an exemplary decision in this case so that people could be deterred from the tradition to level baseless allegations against the SKMT in future.

On Aug 1, 2021, Kh Asif levelled allegations of opaqueness in the utilization of the SKMT funds during his press conference in the Punjab House. Then he repeated the same accusations that very evening in a private TV talk show. 

The premier attended the e-proceedings of the court in the presence of his lawyer Senator Walid Iqbal. 

Reporter Awais Kiyani