Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan gets bill

A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted PTI Chairman Imran Khan two-week bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case, a day after the Supreme Court termed his arrest from the IHC premises “invalid and unlawful”.

A division bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz heard the PTI chief’s bail plea in courtroom No.2. The detailed order in the case is awaited, reports Dawn.

During the hearing, Justice Aurangzeb asked Imran if he condemned the violence that ensued after his arrest, to which the PTI chief’s lawyer replied in the affirmative. The judge then asked the ex-premier to submit a declaration in court stating the same.

Earlier in the day, DawnNewsTV reported that Imran’s lawyers had also filed four additional pleas which urged the IHC to club all the cases against Imran and to direct authorities to provide details of the cases registered against him.

The hearing had initially begun after a nearly two-hour delay with media reporting that officials were conducting a security sweep outside the courtroom.

But they were halted shortly after they began at 1pm on account of Friday prayers. On the other hand, Geo News reported that judges had left the courtroom after “pro-Imran” slogans were raised.

When the hearing resumed after 2:30pm, Imran was present in the courtroom alongside his legal team and his lawyer Khawaja Haris presented his arguments.

Haris contended before the court that the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) actions were illegal. He said that NAB could only issue an arrest warrant after an inquiry had formally been turned into an investigation.

He said that the PTI had gotten to know that NAB had formally initiated an investigation against Imran through media reports. He also said that PTI chief had approached the IHC on May 9 seeking the NAB report in the inquiry but was arrested before he could enter the courtroom.

At one point during the hearing, the court asked the petitioner if he was provided a questionnaire in connection with the case, to which Haris replied in negative.

He said that Imran was issued a call-up notice which he did not appear for but instead submitted a written reply. Haris further said that the accountability watchdog was “biased” at the moment.

The court then accepted Imran’s bail plea and also instructed the NAB prosecutor general and Imran’s lawyers to be prepared at the next hearing. It also said that it would decide whether Imran’s bail should be cancelled or extended at the next hearing.

After the hearing concluded, Dawn.com’s correspondent outside the court said that a sea of PTI workers and supporters celebrated in the streets.

Separately, IHC’s Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri granted Imran protective bail in a case pertaining to the death of Zille Shah — a PTI worker who was killed during a party rally in Lahore earlier this year — for 10 days against surety bonds worth Rs50,000.