Imran Khan's plea against arrest in May 9 cases referred to larger LHC bench

Lahore: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday extended former prime minister Imran Khan's pre-arrest bail in two terrorism cases till May 19.

The ATC Lahore allowed Khan's plea to appear before it through a video-link.

"ATC Lahore Judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar said he was allowing the application of Khan for one-time attendance through video-link and extended his bail till May 19 in two cases of violence and attacks on police teams outside his Zaman Park Lahore residence in March,” a court official told PTI after the hearing.

Barrister Salman Safdar, Khan’s counsel, told the court that his client could not appear due to law and order situation and threat to his life. Khan already survived two attempts on his life, he said.

The judge, however, dismissed the pre-arrest bail of six leaders of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party in the same cases as they failed to appear before the court.

The leaders are Fawad Chaudhry, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Hammad Azhar, Farrukh Habib, Senator Ijaz Chaudhry and Omar Ayub Khan. Most of them are in police custody in connection with the attacks on the army installations after the arrest of Khan on May 9.

Separately, Lahore High Court's Justice Safdar Saleem Shahid on Tuesday referred 70-year-old Khan’s petition to a larger bench seeking a restraining order against police to arrest him in criminal cases of May 9 riots. The court had reserved the verdict earlier in the day.

Khan has sought a relief in continuation of the orders passed by the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court regarding his bail.

In his petition, Khan said he had no role in the law and order situation in the country after his "illegal" arrest by the National Accountability Bureau in the Al-Qadir Trust case. He said police registered a number of criminal cases against him and there was an apprehension that he may again be arrested.

He pleaded that the court should seek details of all undisclosed FIRs registered against him after May 9.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court extended Khan's bail till June 8 in two cases pertaining to inciting violence and sedition.

The IHC had granted Khan bail, barring the authorities from arresting him in all the cases registered beyond May 9 and asked him to approach the LHC for further relief.

In the Al Qadir Trust case, in which the National Accountability Bureau arrested the former cricketer-turned politician on May 9, the IHC granted him pre-arrest bail for two weeks. The Supreme Court had declared Khan’s arrest from the IHC premises illegal and referred the matter to the IHC.

The Punjab police on May 10 booked Khan and hundreds of his party workers for attacking and setting on fire the Corps Commander House in Lahore besides registering five other FIRs against him for inciting his supporters to attack and damage the state buildings and military installations.

Khan and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi and others have been framed under murder, terrorism and 20 other heinous offences for attacking the senior military commander's house known as 'Jinnah House' in Lahore Cantonment last Tuesday.

The arrest of Khan on Tuesday by the Pakistan Rangers at the IHC premises triggered unrest in Pakistan that continued till Friday and led to several deaths and dozens of military and state installations being destroyed by the protesters.

For the first time in Pakistan's history, the protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also torched the corps commander's house in Lahore.

Police put the death toll in violent clashes to 10 while Khan's party claims 40 of its workers lost their lives in the firing by security personnel.

Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.