Fearing arrest, Asad Umar moves IHC for protective bail

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar on Monday filed a protective bail application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) after cases were registered against him in Lahore.

The PTI leader, fearing arrest in the ongoing crackdown against PTI leadership and workers, requested the IHC to hear the protective bail application today. Umar also got his biometrics verified in the high court.

A day earlier, PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other leaders as well as activists of the party were booked in a case of terrorism at Islamabad’s Golra Sharif police station for setting government vehicles ablaze, attacking cops and snatching away their official weapons.

Read Imran Khan’s warrants canceled after day-long chaos

Besides, the federal capital police rounded up 14 more PTI activists in various raids after registering a case against Imran and other party leaders as well as workers under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the CTD station.

Intense clashes between authorities and PTI workers had erupted on March 18 as the PTI chief reached the G-11 Judicial Complex accompanied by 4,000 activists to appear before a district and sessions court in the Toshakhana case – in which he faced charges of concealing details of the gifts he had acquired from the depository in his asset declarations submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which had then filed a complaint against him.

Read more Who attacked police if Bushra Bibi was alone at Zaman Park, asks Maryam

In another development, three cases were registered against the leadership and workers of PTI for clashing with the elite force and other police personnel and destroying official vehicles during the Zaman Park operation in Lahore.

The provisions included in the case include rioting, violence against the police, terrorism, attempted murder, robbery and snatching weapons.