The hearing of PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s bail plea in the Al-Qadir Trust case at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was paused shortly after it began on account of Friday prayers.
A division bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz is hearing the case at courtroom No.2, a day after the Supreme Court termed the ex-premier’s arrest from the IHC premises “invalid and unlawful”.
DawnNewsTV reported that Imran’s lawyers had filed four additional pleas which urged the IHC to club all the cases against Imran and to direct authorities to provide details of the cases registered against him.
The hearing began after a nearly two-hour delay with media reporting that officials were conducting a security sweep outside the courtroom. But they were halted shortly after they began at 1pm on account of Friday prayers.
Talking to the media outside the IHC after the break in proceedings, PTI lawyer Babar Awan claimed that a police team from Lahore had left for Islamabad to arrest Imran in “new cases”.
“There are two to three people in the incumbent administration who are worried because if Imran Khan is released, their jobs will be in danger,” he alleged, adding that this was why Punjab police had been called to the capital.
Awan reiterated there were threats to Imran’s life, adding that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had also said the same. “Why are they then so adamant to arrest Imran? Let me tell you, any attempt to arrest Imran again will be unconstitutional.”
The lawyer also alleged that “special people” were hired to “hunt” the PTI chief and said that those who sent the ex-prime minister to jail were responsible for the violence in the country.
“Before Imran Khan was sent to jail […] the country’s situation was in front of you. Today, the situation has escalated at the hands of those who were struck out by the Supreme Court […] and that is NAB,” Awan added.
