Islamabad(Mudasser Chudary/Webdesk) A two-member special division bench takes up Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s bail plea a day after Supreme Court termed former prime minister’s arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case “unlawful”
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was produced in the Islamabad High Court today after the Supreme Court declared as unlawful his arrest that triggered deadly clashes across the country,
The former prime minister was brought in Islamabad High Court with tight security net around him a little before Friday noon.
DIG Operations Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari led the convoy for Imran Khan’s security.
A high alert was sounded which prompted the authorities to provide anti-riots kits, rubber bullets and tear-gas shells to security personnel.
Police and FC personnel have been deployed in Islamabad with order to use tear-gas shells if political activists gather for protest.
To get his biometrics done, Imran Khan reached the same diary branch from where he was arrested on Tuesday by the paramilitary troops.
A special division IHC bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz will hear a petition filed by the PTI chairman seeking bail in the Al Qadir Trust corruption case filed by the NAB.
TV footages show that strict security measures have been taken as police and Rangers officials have been deployed outside the court premises and barbed wire placed in front of the gate.
Imran submits more pleas seeking protective bail
PTI Chief Imran Khan on Friday submitted more petitions to the Islamabad High Court seeking protective bail in different cases.
Imran’s lawyer Salman Safdar submitted these petitions on his behalf.
The petitioner requested the court to provide him with details of ‘secret cases’ registered against him in different places.
He also beseeched the court to clip together all cases lodged against him.
CJP declares arrest illegal
“Your arrest was invalid, so the whole process needs to be backtracked,” Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Khan at a hearing in Islamabad on Thursday, extending an extraordinary relief to the PTI chief.
The court sent Imran Khan to the Police Lines guest house and ordered him to appear before the IHC on Friday (today).
The CJP directed the National Accountability Bureau and police to ensure foolproof security to Imran Khan until his production before the IHC in the Al Qadir Trust case filed by the anti-graft watchdog.
He further said that the apex court order would stay in force till Imran Khan’s production before the high court and the decision would have no impact on the NAB case.
However, the government has vowed to re-arrest Imran Khan should he be released, setting the stage for more unrest.
Since being ousted from office last April, Imran Khan has waged a tempestuous campaign for snap elections and fired unprecedented criticism at Pakistani rulers and establishment.
He has accused them of plotting a November assassination attempt that saw him shot in the leg.
Meanwhile, he has become tangled in a slew of legal cases.
Security put on high alert in Islamabad
The security has been put on high alert in the red zone and a continuous aerial surveillance of Islamabad is also being carried out, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.
According to the police sources, heavy contingents of police and Frontier Corps (FC) have been deployed on various roads of the federal capital.
The roads declared sensitive have been cordoned off, and most of the points leading to the red zone have also been closed.
The traffic police personnel have also been deployed in Islamabad in larger numbers.
The army vehicles have been patrolling at Zero Point and 7th Avenue.
The onetime cricket star was arrested on Tuesday when, surrounded by dozens of paramilitary troops, he was taken into custody at the Islamabad High Court on corruption charges.
The Islamabad High Court chief justice had previously declared Khan’s arrest ‘legal’ in whose court the arrest order was executed.
But Supreme Court Chief Justice Bandial remarked yesterday that the arrests should not take place on court premises
Khan, 70, was ordered back to the same police headquarters where he has been sequestered for the past 48 hours on the condition it should be treated as a “residence”.
But Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said authorities would re-arrest him.
“If he gets bail from the High Court tomorrow, we will wait for the cancellation of bail and arrest him again,” Sanaullah told a private TV channel during an interview.
– Tear gas and water cannon –
Small groups of supporters danced on the streets at news the arrest had been overturned. In Lahore, police fired tear gas canisters into a crowd cheering the decision.
But with dozens of cases against him, Khan “has a long way to go”, analyst Imtiaz Gul told AFP.
“This is just a timely relief, probably as part of efforts to de-escalate the explosive situation and reduce tensions,” he said.
“The cobweb of criminal cases seems meant to entangle and thus incapacitate him from active politics” ahead of elections due in October, he said.
Several thousand of Imran Khan’s supporters had rampaged through cities around the country this week in protest at his arrest, setting fire to buildings and blocking roads.
At least nine people have died in the unrest, police and hospitals said.
Hundreds of police officers have been injured and more than 2,000 people arrested, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, according to authorities.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf top leadership including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari, Dr Yasmeen Rashid, Umar Sarfraz Cheema and Musarrat Jamshed have already been detained over charges of orchestrating the protests, police said.
Security forces have responded with tear gas and water cannon to quell the crowds and on Thursday came equipped with batons and riot shields.
