Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday secured interim bail in three cases — including at-tempted murder and prohibited funding cases — while a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him in the Toshakhana case by a district and sessions court in Islamabad.
Amid a busy schedule yesterday, the PTI chairman appeared be-fore the banking court, anti-terrorism court and the sessions court at the Judicial Complex in Islamabad. He, however, skipped the hearing related to Toshakhana gifts. PTI chief Khan secured interim bail from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the attempted murder case.
IHC’s Justice Aamer Farooq granted Khan interim bail till March 9 against surety bonds worth Rs100,000. In October last year, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lead-er and member of the National Assembly Moshin Nawaz Ranjha filed the case against the deposed prime minister — who was ousted from power through a no-confidence motion in April — at the Secretariat police station in the federal capital. Ranjha had approached the police after being attacked outside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s office in Islamabad, where PTI workers and supporters were protesting ECP’s verdict, which disqualified their party chief in the Toshakhana case.
It is pertinent to mention here, the election organising authority on October 21 disqualified Imran Khan, finding him guilty of not sharing details of Toshakhana gifts and proceeds from their sale during his tenure as prime minister. A five-member bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, unanimous-ly ruled against Khan under Article 63 (p) of the Constitution.
As Imran Khan arrived at the judicial complex in the federal capi-tal, a large number of PTI workers entered the building by knock-ing its gate down.
Security arrangements at Sector G-11 of the judicial complex were disrupted as the PTI workers removed all barriers.
Earlier in the day, a district and sessions court in Islamabad issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the PTI chief in the Toshakhana case against him.
Additional sessions judge Zafar Iqbal, who conducted the hearing of the case, announced the decision as Khan failed to appear be-fore the court despite repeated orders.
During the course of proceedings, Khan’s lawyer Ali Bukhari and Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) lawyer Saad Hasan were present in court. The hearing of the case was conducted by judge Zafar Iqbal.
Khan’s lawyer informed the court that the former has left Lahore a while ago. “Imran Khan has to appear before two courts in the judicial complex.”
He said that Khan will not be able to appear in this court yester-day. Bukhari requested the court to adjourn the hearing for five days.
“Why is it that Imran can appear in 11 courts but not at the katchehri?” inquired the judge. The court will frame charges against him so he should come here and then leave, he remarked.
“Khawaja Haris is Imran Khan’s lawyer in this case and he is not available to appear in this court today,” he added. The judge sought Khan once again in the Toshakhana case yesterday.
Both of Khan’s lawyers — Ali Bukhari and Sardar Masroof — are were reportedly giving contradictory statements about Khan’s arri-val.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) court granted interim bail to the former prime minister after he appeared before it at the judicial complex.
The former prime minister secured bail in the prohibited funding and terrorism cases filed against him.
ATC judge Raja Jawad heard the terror case and granted bail till March 9 against the submission of surety bonds worth Rs100,000.
The Islamabad police had registered terror cases against PTI lead-ers, including Khan, after the party workers took to the streets and vandalised state property following his disqualification in the Toshakhana reference.
The cases — filed under 7ATA along with other sections of the PPC — were filed at different police stations in the federal capital in which hundreds of PTI workers and leaders were named for block-ing roads and attacking police personnel at the behest of Khan, Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan and others.
Later, judge Rakhshanda Shaheen confirmed Imran Khan’s bail in the prohibited funding case.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on October 2022 booked the PTI chief for allegedly receiving prohibited funding.
The ECP, in a unanimous verdict on August 2022, had announced that the PTI received prohibited funding.
The case was earlier referred to as the “foreign funding” case, but later the election commission accepted the PTI’s plea to refer to it as the “prohibited funding” case.
