-Islamabad Police arrived at Imran’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore around 12:30pm to arrest him
-PTI workers resist en masse outside Imran residence on Fawad Chaudhry’s call
-Interior Minister says Imran’s arrest was on court orders, and not the government’s
-Non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for Imran’s persistent no-shows in Toshakhana case hearings
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday dodged arrest as Islamabad Police showed up at his Zaman Park resi-dence in Lahore with court summons to take him into custody for his persistent absences from Toshakhana court hearings.
The 70-year-old former prime minister, who has been recovering from a gunshot injury from an assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year, has thrice skipped indictment hearings in an Islamabad sessions court in the case.
When the Islamabad Police along with their Punjab Police counterparts arrived at Imran’s residence just after noon today, they found a horde of PTI supporters along with party leaders, and were informed that the PTI chief was “una-vailable”.
With PTI workers outnumbering the police contingent, and despite Islamabad police chief earlier saying that they won’t go back empty-handed, the arrest could not be made. The Islamabad police left Imran’s residence at around 1:30pm.
As Imran’s whereabouts were debated upon, he ended the hours-long mystery by addressing a televised party event right from the Zaman Park residence a little before 5pm.
Addressing the crowd of PTI loyalists, Imran said he had never “bowed before any man or institution, and will never let you do so as well”. Imran said he had called the public to Zaman Park to pay tribute to them for the way they participated in the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ (court arrest movement). “I did not call you for my support but to thank you,” he added.
He said “only a nation, and not a group” could confront the challenges being faced by the country.
Assailing the government’s performance, he said it was the “worst time” for the country as the economy had “sunk” and the people were being crushed by “record high inflation in Pakistan’s history”.
He lashed out at government leaders, alleging that they had stashed their wealth overseas and were given protection in legal cases by former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The PTI chief renewed his allegation that “all those in power today” were behind the Wazirabad assassination attempt on him, but named Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and an intelligence official in par-ticular.
Imran is accused of concealing, in his assets declarations, details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana — a re-pository where presents handed to government officials from foreign officials are kept. Officials are legally allowed to retain gifts provided they pay a pre-assessed amount, typically a fraction of the value of the gift.
In a series of tweets today, the Islamabad Police said an operation to arrest Imran was being conducted with the co-operation of the Lahore police.
It stated that the PTI chief was “avoiding” the arrest, adding that the superintendent of police had “gone into Imran’s room but he was not present there”. “Islamabad Police will transfer Imran Khan to Islamabad under their protection. Law is equal for all,” it said adding that legal action would be taken against those obstructing the execution of court orders.
Separately, Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akbar Nasir said that the police had delivered the court’s no-tice to Imran and confirmed that it had to be received.
PTI leader Shibli Faraz received the summons on Imran’s behalf, writing on the document that it was received at 12:58pm and that “Chairman Imran Khan is not available however we will comply with all legal processes”.
Later in the day, when Imran’s presence at his residence was confirmed by way of his speech, Islamabad police said action would be taken against Senator Faraz for “misrepresenting facts” in the way of legal action.
Meanwhile, footage on television showed police officials in Islamabad Police uniforms as well as Punjab Police being held back by PTI workers outside the Zaman Park residence.
A little later, Punjab police reinforcements could also be seen arriving outside Imran’s house.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal on Feb 28, issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the PTI chief when he failed to appear in person for the indictment. Imran had four in-person court hearings that day and managed to secure bail in three of the four cases. The warrant stated that Imran had repetitively failed to appear before the court. “The accused is making a pick and choose for courts and cases and this case is not included in his priority.”
“The accused be summoned through a non-bailable warrant of arrest for March 7,” it added.
