Islamabad: After the Supreme Court deemed his detention from the IHC grounds “invalid and unlawful,” a division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted PTI Chairman Imran Khan a two-week bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case, DAWN has reported.
The PTI leader’s bail request was considered by a division bench comprising Justices Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Saman Rafat Imtiaz in courtroom-2.
Justice Aurangzeb also ordered that Imran Khan could not be arrested till 17 May in any case filed after 9 May – the day the former premier was arrested from high court premises.
According to DawnNewsTV, Imran’s attorneys also submitted four further petitions asking the IHC to combine all of the cases against him and order the authorities to disclose specifics of the charges brought against him.
The hearing started after a delay of about two hours caused by the media’s claim that security checks were being conducted outside the courthouse.
However, due to Friday prayers, they came to an abrupt end not long after they started at 1pm local time.
However, Geo News stated that after “pro-Imran” chants were heard, judges had already left the courtroom.
Imran was present in the courtroom with his legal team when the hearing resumed after 2:30 p.m. Imran’s attorney Khawaja Haris made his points.
Haris argued before the court that the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) action was unlawful. He asserted that the inquiry had to be formally transformed into an investigation before NAB could issue an arrest warrant.
He said that the PTI had gotten to know that NAB had formally initiated an investigation against Imran through media reports. He also said that PTI chief had approached the IHC on 9 May seeking the NAB report in the inquiry, but he was arrested before he could enter the courtroom.
The petitioner was questioned if he received a questionnaire related to the matter at one point during the hearing, and to which Haris responded in negative.
He claimed that Imran received a call-up notice but chose to respond via letter instead of showing up. Haris added that the accountability watchdog was now “biased.”
The court subsequently acknowledged Imran’s request for bail and told the NAB prosecutor general and Imran’s attorneys to be ready for the next hearing, when it would decide whether or not to terminate or extend Imran’s bail.
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