Imran Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been issued non-bailable arrest warrants by a local court in Islamabad. The warrants were issued in a case filed against Khan for threatening a female judge. The reserved verdict was announced by Judicial Magistrate Malik Aman, who rejected the request filed by Khan’s counsel seeking relief from court appearance. The court has ordered that Khan must appear in court on April 18.
The case against the former prime minister Imran Khan was registered on August 20 last year at Margalla police station in the federal capital over his remarks at a rally in F9 Park. Khan had warned Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and police high-ups of dire consequences for what he called their “biased” attitude towards his party. He alleged that Judge Chaudhry knew that incarcerated party leader Shahbaz Gill was tortured, but she did not release him on bail.
Although the Islamabad High Court (IHC) withdrew its show cause notice to Imran Khan and said it was satisfied with his apology and conduct, the matter is still pending at a lower court in the federal capital.
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During the hearing, prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that Imran Khan must be ordered to appear before the court for the next hearing. Khan’s lawyer, Ali Gohar, argued that Khan would appear before the court on March 30 for the Toshakhana case and requested that the court give the same date for the next hearing of this case. He asked the judge to uphold the warrant’s suspension and said that he would go to the civil courts and get the arrest deadline changed from March 29 to 30.
The judge deemed this an “odd request” as the warrant provided the date of March 29, but the lawyer insisted on March 30. The prosecutor questioned if the plea meant that the court could not “dare” to issue an arrest warrant, adding that arguments to suspend the warrant should be made on merit. He furthered that the accused was a “blue-eyed boy” of the courts, but even he was “not favored that much”.
