An Islamabad court Thursday suspended the non-bailable arrest warrants of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the judge-threatening case till March 20. Additional District and Sessions Judge Faizan Gillani suspended the warrants and directed Imran Khan – who was ousted as the prime minister last April – to appear before the relevant court on the set date. Senior civil judge Rana Mujahid Rahim had on March 13 issued Imran Khan’s non-bailable arrest warrant for repeatedly failing to appear before the court. To avert arrest, the former prime minister had filed a petition in a local court challenging the arrest warrant – but he has still not appeared before the court in person despite repeated summons. Later, on March 14, Judge Gillani had suspended the arrest warrants till March 16 – and Thursday, he extended the relief.
When prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi appeared before the court during the hearing, he opposed the suspension of the arrest warrant, while PTI’s counsel appealed for granting relief to the party chief – and the judge followed through. A case was registered against the former prime minister under the Anti-Terrorism Act for allegedly threatening Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and senior police officers of the Islamabad Police during a public rally in August last year. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) then started contempt of court proceedings against the former prime minister.
Later on, the high court removed the terror charges and also pardoned the PTI chief after he tender an apology in the contempt case. But a similar case was filed against the PTI chief – after the registration of the first information report (FIR) against him – is still pending before the sessions court.
