An arrest warrant issued against the former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan for threatening a female judge while speaking to a crowd here last year was stayed by a court here on Tuesday until March 16.
According to Dawn News, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) head Khan was the subject of a non-bailable arrest order on Monday for allegedly making threats against Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and Islamabad police officers.
The 70-year-old PTI leader was prepared to watch the court proceedings through a video connection, according to Khan’s attorney during the hearing on Monday. But, Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim rejected his request and ordered the police to bring the former cricket player to court by March 29.
Khan’s attorney argued that “due to security danger to the petitioner’s life, the petitioner could not appear before the learned trial court,” according to Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani’s judgment. The PTI leader then challenged the warrants in the district court.
An attorney for Khan said during the hearing that the former prime minister was not secure traveling to Islamabad due to threats made against him and that they had submitted a plea to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) requesting permission to appear in court remotely.
The court declared that the defenses put forward in Khan’s plea needed to be taken into account.
“Today, on March 16, 2023, arguments will be brought up. The implementation of the contested order is thus delayed until the subsequent date, the order continued.
During the hearing on Tuesday, attorneys Naeem Panjotha and Intizar Panjotha appeared in court. Panjotha claimed that all of the sections used against the PTI leader were bailable, to which the judge questioned if prior arrest warrants for Khan had also been issued that were not bailable.
The attorney responded that up until this point, no arrest warrants had been filed in connection with the alleged threat against the female judge.
The government’s attorney told the court that warrants for Khan’s arrest had also been issued as part of the Toshakhana case.
On Monday, a sessions court ordered the police to detain the PTI leader in the case and bring him before a judge by March 18.
The judge noted that the former premier was addressing an electoral rally in Lahore, to which his attorney responded that the PTI chairman had already appeared before a courthouse last month.
Khan was first charged with violating many PPC and Anti-Terrorism Act provisions (ATA). The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has filed a complaint against him for contempt of court.
Nevertheless, when the former premier apologized in the contempt case, the IHC eventually dropped the terrorist charges and also granted Khan’s pardon.
Nevertheless, the sessions court is now hearing a similar case that was brought following the filing of a first information report (FIR) against him for threatening the judge.
When the district and sessions court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Khan for missing the hearing in that case, a squad from the Islamabad Police traveled to Lahore on Monday to arrest him for threatening the female judge.
Khan has missing the indictment hearings in these instances because he is still healing from a gunshot wound sustained in a failed assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year.
The PTI leader is being investigated for purchasing presents, including a pricey Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a reduced price from the state storehouse known as Toshakhana, and then profitably reselling them.
After a failed effort by police to arrest Khan from his Zaman Park mansion in Lahore earlier this month, Khan has harshly criticized the state institutions.
Khan said that he was dealing with at least 80 distinct matters in various Pakistani courts.
Khan was removed from office in April of last year after losing a vote of no confidence in him, which he said was a result of a US-led plot to assassinate him for his independent foreign policy choices on Russia, China, and Afghanistan.