The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday granted PTI chief Imran Khan protective bail in a case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against him and other party leaders for allegedly submitting false affidavits to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in connection with a prohibited funding case against his party.
The bail was approved against surety bonds worth Rs5,000 till October 18 after Imran appeared before the court.
IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah had summoned Imran earlier today, midway through the hearing of his plea for protective bail.
Imran had sought the bail after the FIA’s Commerical Bank Circle in Islamabad registered a first information report (FIR) against him and other PTI leaders on October 6.
The FIR stated: “[The] PTI submitted an affidavit of [Abraaj founder] Arif Masood Naqvi before the Election Commission of Pakistan stating therein that all the amounts collected in the accounts of WCL (Wootton Cricket Limited) were submitted into PTI’s account in Pakistan…[the] affidavit has been proved to be false/forged as two more transactions were also made from WCL to two different accounts in Pakistan in May 2013.”
It also mentioned United Bank Limited (UBL) for its failure to report suspicious transactions to the authorities concerned.
Subsequently, Imran filed a plea for protective bail, contending that relief was needed so he could “surrender and approach the competent court having [the] jurisdiction to entertain [his] bail petition”.
