Court changes Imran's non-bailable arrest warrant to bailable

Former premier had filed a plea to extend the suspension of the warrant in the matter of him threatening a judge

ISLAMABAD:

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday changed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's non-bailable arrest warrant to a bailable warrant in the case of Imran threatening a woman judge.

Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani disposed of the PTI's plea to extend the suspension of the arrest warrant against the former premier. Earlier, the judge had reserved his verdict after hearing arguments.

During the hearing, prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that Imran must be ordered to appear before the court for the next hearing.

Imran’s lawyer, Ali Gohar, argued that the PTI chief would appear before the court on March 30 for the Toshakhana case and requested that the court give the same date for the next hearing of this case.

He asked the judge to uphold the warrant’s suspension and said that he would go to the civil courts and get the arrest deadline changed from March 29 to 30.

The judge maintained that this was an “odd request” as the warrant provided the date of March 29, but the lawyer was insisting on March 30.

The prosecutor questioned if the plea meant that the court could not “dare” to issue an arrest warrant, adding that arguments to suspend the warrant should be made on merit. He furthered that the accused was a “blue-eyed boy” of the courts, but even he was "not favoured that much".

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Imran’s counsel pleaded for the extension of the PTI chairman's warrant suspension till March 30, to which the judge remarked that the court could issue any decision on March 29.

The lawyer reiterated that the warrant related to the Toshakhana case was suspended till March 30, to which the judge inquired whether Imran would ever appear before the court in the case of threatening a judge.

The prosecutor informed the court that Imran had never appeared in this case, and had to be given a copy of the case and added that lawyer Gohar Ali did not have power of attorney in the reference.

Later, the court reserved its decision on the plea.

The case against the former prime minister was registered on August 20, 2022, with Margalla police station in the federal capital over his remarks at a rally in F9 Park where he warned Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and police high-ups of dire consequences for what he called their “biased” attitude towards his party.

Imran alleged that Judge Zeba knew that incarcerated party leader Shahbaz Gill was tortured, but she did not release him on bail. The former premier was booked in a terrorism case on the complaint of Islamabad Saddar Magistrate Ali Javed for threatening the additional sessions judge.