ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Wednesday, directed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar to appear before it in personal capacity today (Thursday) in pre-arrest bails.

A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir conducted a hearing of the pre-arrest bail petitions of Qureshi and Umar and said that it could not hear the bail petitions of the accused without their presence as their bail cases had already been rejected by the trial court.

The PTI leaders moved the IHC to get the interim bail petitions in a case registered against them by Tarnol Police Station with regard to the incidents of May 9.

They adopted the stance that the police had registered cases to pressurise and humiliate them and they were ready to join the investigation into the matter.

Petitioners’ lawyer Ali Bokhari advocate said Qureshi and Umar had reached outside the court premises and there was a risk of their arrest if they came out from the vehicle.

The court questioned that whether there was any precedent when an accused was given interim bail without appearance. The lawyer prayed the court to grant protective bail to his clients so that they could appear before it.

Justice Tahir said the lower court had already dismissed pre-arrest bails of the two petitioners and in such circumstances, they could not be given bail without attendance. The law was very clear about it, he said.

Later, the IHC bench deferred the hearing of the case till Thursday (today) and said that it would hear the bail case if the accused appeared in person.

A lower court on June 20 rejected the bail petitions of the PTI’s leaders after that both the accused escaped from the court premises.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023