Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Friday was granted bail for two weeks by the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Qadir Trust case. The court also barred authorities from arresting Imran Khan till May 17 in any new case, Geo News reported. The former Pakistan prime minister arrived there amid high security to appear before a three-member Islamabad High Court bench days after his dramatic arrest at the premises.
“There is a fear that I will be arrested again as soon as I leave the High Court,” the PTI chief said during an informal conversation with the media ahead of the bail hearing, as per Pakistan’s Samaa News.
عمران خان کی اسلام آباد ہائی کورٹ آمد۔۔
وکلاء نے عمران خان کے حق میں شدید نعرے بازی جاری۔۔۔ pic.twitter.com/WUpryrAI92
— Waqas Amjad ( محترم ) (@waqas_amjaad) May 12, 2023
In a video shared by Independent Urdu on Twitter, Imran Khan was heard saying: “I was sitting in the high court. They had no reason to arrest me. I was abducted.”
“And there they showed me the warrant for the first time when they took me to jail. This happens in the law of the jungle and the army abducts. Where did the police go? Where did the law go?” he asked.
مجھے جیل لے جا کر وارنٹ دکھایا گیا: عمران خان
مزید تفصیلات: https://t.co/SGfafTAOlK pic.twitter.com/GaVhlFZOu5
— Independent Urdu (@indyurdu) May 12, 2023
“The law of the jungle has been instated in the country. It seems as if martial law has been declared,” he further remarked.
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court Terms Imran Khan’s Arrest As “Illegal”
The bail hearing came after Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday declared Imran Khan’s arrest “illegal”. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, was hearing the case and terming his arrest ‘illegal’, ordering his immediate release. The top court also observed that whatever the Islamabad High Court decides, Imran will have to abide by it, Dawn reported.
During the hearing, Imran’s lawyer argued that his arrest was made without an investigation officer and accused National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of committing contempt of court. The Chief Justice of Pakistan stressed the importance of courts being accessible to everyone and the individuals should feel safe to approach them.
As per the Dawn report, Imran Khan’s lawyer said the arrest warrant dated May 1 was not in accordance with the law and questioned why NAB did not try to arrest him for eight days. The Advocate General stated that NAB is an independent institution and had requested Rangers to be present at the scene but not carry out the arrest.
Justice Minallah, expressing concern about NAB’s actions, accused them of “political engineering” and “contributing to the country’s destruction”.
Notably, the PTI had filed a petition in the country’s Supreme Court a day earlier challenging the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision calling party chief Imran Khan’s arrest by the NAB “legal”.
Imran Khan, who travelled from Lahore to the federal capital Islamabad, was undergoing a biometric process at the Islamabad High Court when the paramilitary Rangers broke open the glass window and arrested him after beating lawyers and Khan’s security staff. An anti-corruption court in Pakistan granted the NAB eight-day remand of Imran Khan a day with the Al-Qadir Trust case in which he is accused of looting Rs 50 billion from the national treasury.
