Imran warns of disastrous effects of divided SC
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday expressed his concerns about the potential division among judges in the Supreme Court, warning that any division within the highest court of the land would be a tragic event, particularly in light of recent verdict on the elections delay case.
Speaking to the media before a hearing at the Lahore High Court (LHC), the former prime minister criticised the government for evading elections and disregarding the Constitution and the law.
During his appearance, the Lahore High Court granted protective bail to the PTI chief until April 26 in an FIR registered against him at the Ramana Police Station for “insulting the institutions, tarnishing their image, inciting people against them and abetment”.
Justice Ali Baqar Najafi heard the plea filed by the former prime minister through his counsel Barrister Salman Safdar.
As proceedings commenced, Barrister Safdar argued that false cases had been registered against his client despite the fact that he had nothing to do with them. He argued that his client was being subjected to political victimisation. He further requested the court to grant Imran protective bail so that he could approach the relevant court.
Justice Najafi asked Imran’s counsel if his client wanted to appear before the relevant court.
The lawyer responded with a yes, arguing that the FIR registered against Imran relied upon different parts of his speeches.
Justice Najafi granted the Imran protective bail till April 26.
Petition
Imran contended in his petition that he was absolutely innocent and had been falsely implicated with ulterior motives and mala fide intentions in the case just to tarnish his reputation, harm his growing mandate among the masses and victimise him politically.
“Being head of the largest political party and aggrieved from such malpractice, the petitioner craves for the kind indulgence of this court for the grant of ‘protective bail’.”
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He implored in the petition that a series of false criminal cases had been registered against him, the senior PTI leadership and active participants during the last few months. The hidden agenda, quite apparently, behind registration of these FIRs was to pressure the leadership and active participants by way of humiliation and degradation through securing straightaway arrests and inflicting ‘custodial torture’ at the behest of political opponents.
In the past, the PTI leaders had been severely tortured and humiliated in custody. “This is another attempt made by the state functionaries to secure straightaway arrest of the petitioner and inflict inhumane custodial torture. An inordinate and unexplained delay of (18) days in lodging the instant case is concerning and raises questions about the intention behind it.”
The petition stated, “It appears that this time was used for careful planning and seeking instructions to register a malicious case against the petitioner, solely to satisfy their political adversaries.
“The complainant is a magistrate, but the sequence of events suggests that this particular police station has become a hot spot for registering cases against the petitioner.”
In light of these circumstances, it said, it seemed clear that the petitioner's involvement was nothing more than a concentrated effort to tarnish his reputation.
Such a delay in lodging the FIR without a reasonable explanation only “adds to the suspicion and casts doubt on the legitimacy of the case”.
He requested the court to grant him protective/transitory bail in FIR No-255/23 registered on April 6, 2023 under sections 500, 505 and 138 of PPC 1860 enabling the petitioner to surrender and approach the competent court having ‘jurisdiction’ to entertain the bail petition.