Pak court issues non-bailable arrest warrants for Imran Khan in woman judge threat case

Islamabad: A court in Pakistan on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for former prime minister Imran Khan in a case related to alleged threats made to a woman judge.

Islamabad-based judicial magistrate Malik Aman presiding over the hearing rejected a plea by Khan’s counsel to grant him exemption from in-person appearance.

He also rejected a plea by Khan's lawyer to allow the former prime minister to appear on March 30 when the prosecution lawyer opposed the move by saying that he should have appeared by the deadline of the arrest warrants.

The judge issued non-bailable arrest warrants against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief and directed the authorities to present him before the court on April 18.

At the last hearing on March 24, the court converted the non-bailable arrest warrant issued for Khan into a bailable warrant. He was supposed to appear by March 29 but failed to come to the court.

Earlier, Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim had on March 13 issued the non-bailable arrest warrants against him in the case.

The case is based on a speech by Khan in August last year, using threatening language against Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and the Islamabad police officials.

Khan was booked under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Besides, Islamabad High Court (IHC) also initiated contempt of court proceedings against him. Later the terrorism charges were dropped.

The former prime minister has been facing dozens of cases registered against him in various cities after his ouster from power in April last year. He has not been arrested so far in any case.