ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Tuesday provided relief to former prime minister Imran Khan by suspending non-bailable arrest warrants against him which were issued by a lower court in a graft case in which he is accused of selling state gifts while in office.
The warrants were issued by a sessions judge, Zafar Iqbal, last week after Khan persistently remained absent from the proceedings against him.
An Islamabad police contingent visited the former prime minister’s residence in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday to detain him ahead of the lower court’s hearing on Tuesday. However, he managed to evade arrest and avoided to appear before the court again where he was expected to be indicted.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) took up the plea filed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the case that has popularly come to be known as the Toshakhana – or state repository – reference.
“IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq accepted the PTI chief’s plea against Additional Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal’s decision and directed Khan to ensure that he appears before the lower court on March 13,” reported Geo News.
The lawyers representing the former prime minister, who survived a gun attack last year in November, said there were continued threats to his life. Apart from that, they maintained he was not in a good health and his medical team had advised him not to travel from one city to another.
During the hearing, the top IHC judge gave Khan’s lawyers 30 minutes to tell when the former PM would appear before the court.
He noted that all judges faced security threats as well, asking: “Should I shut down the court?”
According to Dawn newspaper, Justice Farooq told Khan’s legal team to “be fair with the system” and not to “make a joke of it.”
Islamabad Advocate General Jahangir Khan Jadoon told IHC that Khan was preparing to spearhead his party’s election campaign while citing security reasons to stay away from the court proceedings.
