ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court suspended a non-bailable arrest warrant issued for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday, in a case pertaining to issuing threats to a junior judge and chief of Islamabad police over custodial torture of an aide.
The charges are related to an emotional speech by the former prime minister in which he allegedly threatened the judge, Zeba Chaudhry, in August of last year after his then-chief of staff, Shehbaz Gill, was viciously tortured in detention and denied bail in a sedition case.
A conviction against Khan would mean disqualification from politics for life since under the law, no convicted person can run for office.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the counsel for Khan requested that he be allowed to join proceedings via video link, but Judge Rahim refused and ordered Khan must be arrested and presented before the court by March 29.
The opposition party subsequently challenged the warrant in the district court, which was heard by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani.
In its written order, the court noted that Khan’s counsel had argued that “due to security threat to the life of petitioner, the petitioner could not appear before the learned trial court”.
The court further said that the arguments raised by the petition required consideration and suspended the operation of the impugned order until the next hearing on March 16.
During the hearing, the judge asked if non-bailable arrest warrants had been issued against Khan earlier as well, to which his lawyer replied in the negative. He then asked if terrorism charges had been removed from the case, to which the lawyer replied in the affirmative.
The judge further said the party’s name is Movement for Justice, but he questioned what legal reforms the party has introduced. He stressed that hearings could be conducted via video link, but said that the party is not focused on legal reforms.
The court has requested that Khan’s counsel submit security documents to the court and issued notices to the respondents in the case.
