LHC grants protective bail to Express News journalist

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has accepted Express News journalist Imran Riaz Khan's plea for protective bail after multiple sedition cases were registered against him.

Khan had filed two petitions with the LHC through his lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq. He also stated on his Twitter account that he had been granted bail.

Justice Tariq Nadeem and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz separately heard the petitions. The former granted the journalist protective bail of four days while the latter granted it till May 31.

In the petitions, the journalist said that he was currently residing in Lahore.

"The petitioner is apprehending his arrest while approaching the local District and Sessions Court of Thatha/Nawabshah for the purpose of surrendering before the court of law and seeking bail before arrest to defend the bogus, baseless allegation leveled against the petitioner and to join the investigation to prove his innocence during the course of the investigation," they stated.

They said that Khan had approached the LHC for the grant of pre-arrest protective bail for "a reasonable time prior to reaching in Thatta/Nawabshah and to save himself from any irreparable loss in terms of his arrest despite that the case is absolutely false [...]."