ISLAMABAD: A local court on Thursday granted interim bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan in a case registered against him for using controversial remarks against a female judge during a rally in the capital city.

Khan appeared before session judge Kamran Basharat Mufti for obtaining interim bail. Babar Awan, Khan’s counsel filed an application before the court and requested the court to grant interim bail to his client.

The court inquired whether this is the first bail application. The court after hearing the arguments accepted the PTI chief’s bail application and approved his interim bail till October 13 against surety bonds of Rs 50,000. The court also issued notice to the police for the next hearing.

Senior civil judge Rana Mujahid Rahim issued an arrest warrant for Khan in a case pertaining to using controversial remarks against female judge Zeba Chaudhry. The FIR registered against Khan includes four sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) including 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 189 (threat of injury to public servant), and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant). Later, the former prime minister filed for bail before arrest at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) through his lawyer Dr Babar Awan.

IHC Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani granted interim pre-arrest bail to Imran Khan until October 7 against surety bonds of Rs 10,000. A terrorism case was registered against Imran Khan at Margalla police station in the same case. However, the IHC on September 19 ordered the removal of terrorism sections from the case registered against the PTI chief for threatening the woman judge and officials of Islamabad police.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022