— Former PM secures bail in three of record four cases heard simultaneously
ISLAMABAD: After securing bail in three cases involving prohibited funding, terrorism, and attempted murder, former prime minister Imran Khan faced a legal setback as a fourth court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for him in the Toshakhana case.
The warrants were issued just hours after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman narrowly dodged arrest in two of over 70 complaints on various charges, including terrorism, registered against him across the country.
Khan, who is recovering in Lahore from gunshot wounds sustained during a rally last year, appeared before four different courts in Islamabad on Tuesday, accompanied by a large number of party workers and supporters.
He was scheduled to be indicted in the Toshakhana case but his lawyer requested that he be excused from the hearing due to prior commitments in other courts. The indictment has been postponed twice before.
According to Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal, the hearing has been adjourned until March 7.
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In the first case of terrorism, the anti-terrorism court (ATC) judge, Raja Jawad Abbas, approved Khan’s interim bail until March 9 in a case about violent protests outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Meanwhile, the banking court judge, Rakhshinda Shaheen, confirmed bail for the former prime minister in the prohibited funding case.
Khan appeared before the two judges separately.
The terrorism case was filed in October of last year at Islamabad’s Sangjani police station after supporters of the opposition party held demonstrations outside the tribunal’s offices across the country, following the disqualification of the former prime minister in the foreign gifts reference.
In the funding case, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked Khan and a number of his aides in connection with their party allegedly receiving “prohibited funding” in October.
The case was filed by the state through the corporate banking circle of the agency in Islamabad. In September last year, the ECP issued its verdict in the case, which was previously referred to as the foreign funding case, against the party, declaring the party did indeed receive prohibited funding.
Following this development, Khan arrived at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which granted him pre-arrest bail until March 9 in the attempted murder case.
The foreign funding case was heard in a banking court, and the terrorism case in an anti-terrorism court located inside the judicial complex. While the Toshakhana and attempted murder cases were taken up at a sessions court in the F-8 sector.
