— Former PM lambasts ‘imported’ govt, ‘handlers’ for blocking broadcast of charity telethon for flood victims
ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday extended for a week the pre-arrest bail of Imran Khan on terrorism charges relating to a speech after the former prime minister appeared in court amid tight security.
The bail was approved until September 20, his lawyer said. The pre-arrest bail expired on September 1.
According to Babar Awan, the lawyer, the court adjourned the case after the prosecution counsel sought more time for arguments.
The charges against Khan are related to what police claimed was a threat to the Islamabad police chief and a junior judge after Khan spoke about the custodial torture of Shehbaz Gill, his chief of staff who faces sedition charges for “inciting mutiny” in the military.
In his speech, Khan said he “would not spare” Akbar Nasir Khan, the police chief, and Zeba Chaudhry, an additional district and sessions judge who remanded Gill to custody, adding he would take legal action against them.
Khan has denied he threatened the officials, saying his words were taken out of context.
In a complaint filed with the high court of Islamabad, Gill’s brother says Chaudhry was affiliated with the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance and her husband Mujtaba Sherazi is a former lawmaker associated with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Meanwhile, speaking to the media after the hearing wrapped up, Awan gave a rundown of the proceedings.
“The said Imran had not joined the investigation. I said he will be here in a while, let’s do it.” He went on to add that the charge against Imran in the counter-terrorism court had been reduced to a mere “two sentences” after the high court’s contempt proceedings.
“I asked the court where it requires the suspect to go to the police station.”
Awan said this was essentially a scheme to “minus Imran” from the political sphere, saying this would backfire.
Since his ouster from power in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan has staged a series of massive anti-government rallies and called for early elections which are otherwise due in late 2023.
TELETHON FOR FLOOD VICTIMS
On Sunday night, Khan held another international telethon to collect funds for over 33 million flood affectees across the country.
Criticising the government in a tweet, Khan said the “imported government” stooped to new lows last night when it tried to blackout the telethon for fundraising.
“This shows how petrified they are of our rising popularity amongst the nation. Also, they know no one trusts them with their money given their record of loot & plunder,” he said, adding: “Despite all this, we managed to raise Rs5.2 billion in just 2 hours.”
Imported govt of cabal of crooks & their handlers stooped to new lows last night when they tried to blackout my telethon for flood relief fund raising. First they pressured channels not to air telethon. When some channels continued to air telethon they threatened cable operators.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) September 12, 2022
Since June 14, over 1,400 people lost their lives while 12,722 have been injured in the rain and flood-related incidents across the country.
Currently, one-third of the country is underwater as the massive rains and melting glaciers have caused the Indus River to overflow, inundating vast swaths of plains, and farms.
Destructive rains and floods have also washed away hundreds of thousands of houses, bridges, roads, and buildings across the South Asian nuclear country, which is already grappling with a political and economic turmoil.
So far, over 1.73 million houses have been damaged, including 565,878 completely destroyed, while 754,708 livestock have perished.
Over 33 million of the approximately 220 million population have been affected by the raging floods, causing a staggering loss of billions of dollars in damages to an already weakened infrastructure.
— With input from Anadolu Agency
