ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday decided to approach an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in person today (Thursday) seeking bail in a terrorism case registered against him by the ruling coalition.
Last week, a first investigation report (FIR) was registered against the PTI chairman at Margalla police station under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (punishment for acts of terrorism) regarding his comments at the party’s Islamabad rally on August 20.
Following this, Khan approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) where a two-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Babar Sattar, granted him protective bail till August 25.
In a video message shared on PTI’s official Twitter handle, Babar Awan, the counsel for the PTI chairman, said that the PTI chief had chaired a meeting of the party’s legal committee on Wednesday in which it was decided that an application seeking the ex-prime minister’s bail would be filed in an ATC.
“Imran Khan will go there himself,” he said, adding that both the local and international media had been asking about the matter.
“This fake case […] in which there was neither a blast nor a Kalashnikov [rifle] used […] and the police built up charges of terrorism, destroying Pakistan’s narrative developed over the last 20 years against terrorism”, he added.
He further said that the international media, human rights organisations and even the United Nations had expressed concern over the registration of terrorism case against the former prime minister.
“We will all go together tomorrow,” he added.
In his speech at a rally in the capital, the PTI chief had said he would take legal actions against the inspector general police and his deputy for “torturing” his chief of staff Dr Shahbaz Gill, as well as the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Zeba Chaudhry, who gave the Islamabad police a 48-hour physical remand of Gill despite knowing the police tortured him.
This prompted the government to register a case against Khan under the draconian anti-terrorism law for “threatening” the police and the female magistrate.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022