SC directs police not to arrest Imran till Aug 9 in lawyer murder case.

 

ISLAMABAD  -  The Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] yesterday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against former prime minister Imran Khan in a case relat­ing to contempt of the election body.

The ECP instructed Islamabad Cap­ital Territory Police (ICT) to arrest PTI Chief Imran Khan and present him before the electoral watchdog today. These instructions were is­sued owing to no-appearance of Im­ran Khan before the ECP.

The Commission asked the Islam­abad IG to arrest PTI Chief Imran Khan, as he was not appearing before the electoral watchdog de­spite being summoned.

The ECP had last year initiat­ed the contempt proceedings against PTI leaders including Im­ran Khan, Asad Umar and others for using foul language against the chief election commissioner. The commission had also served notices to them, asking the rea­sons behind using foul language against ECP chief. Khan in his speeches had repeatedly targeted the ECP chief.

It may be mentioned here that former PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry had tendered an apol­ogy to the ECP in the contempt case filed against him. He argued that his stance was the party’s narrative at that time as he was spokesman of the party. 

Imran Khan, Fawad Chaudhry, and Asad Umar had earlier chal­lenged the ECP notices and con­tempt proceedings in various high courts, arguing that the Elec­tions Act 2017, Section 10, which empowers the ECP to punish for contempt, was against the Consti­tution. The top court had allowed the ECP to continue with the pro­ceedings against them. On June 21, the ECP had decided to frame charges against Imran, Fawad, and Umar in July.

A local court on Monday ap­proved bails of PTI’s Chairman Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi in alleged illegal ‘nikah’ case, and sought arguments on petitions seeking their acquittal. 

Civil Judge Qudratullah heard the case regarding the marriage of Imran Khan with Bushra Bibi.

The petitioner’s lawyer Raja Rizwan Abbasi objected over the exemption from appearance re­quest of Imran Khan and said that no case of the accused could be heard without his attendance. 

He said that the lawyer could not be changed for the sake of one person. Imran Khan’s junior counsel said that the power of at­torney for Bushra Bibi would also be submitted today. Rizwan Ab­basi opposed the request and said that it also could not be filed in absence of the accused. 

Later, Imran Khan appeared be­fore the court and requested for one time exemption from appear­ance was filed by Bushra Bibi. Her lawyer argued that his client had to appear in IHC and then had to join investigation in FIR regis­tered by Kohsar Police Station. 

The court instructed the ac­cused to submit surety bonds for the bails and sought arguments in petition seeking their acquittal on July 26. The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday barred the au­thorities from arresting PTI chief Imran Khan till August 9 in the lawyer murder.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ya­hya Afridi and comprising Jus­tice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Musarrat Hilali conducted hearing of the former prime min­ister’s appeal against the order of a division bench of the Baloch­istan High Court (BHC). The PTI chief had moved the apex court against his nomination in the murder case of Shar Advocate.

Imran Khan in pursuance of the Court direction appeared before the bench along with his lawyers. He was also surrounded by jour­nalists in the courtroom.

At this, a journalist asked from him about the possibility of Fi­nance Minister Ishaq Dar being appointed as caretaker prime minister, to which Khan said, “There cannot be a bigger joke than that.”

He was questioned whether anyone had made any “backdoor contact”, to which he respond­ed in the negative. One journal­ist asked about his “expectations” from the SC, Imran said: “I expect justice from the Supreme Court.”

As for his expectations from Chief Justice-designate Qazi Faez Isa, Imran paused for a mo­ment before saying, “Let’s see what happens.”

During the hearing, the prose­cutor general Balochistan asked the Court to instruct the former premier to appear before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) consti­tuted to investigate the lawyer’s murder case. However, Justice Af­ridi said that the court would not issue such an order at this stage.

“On what grounds do you wish to include the PTI chairman in the investigation?” asked Justice Naqvi. The advocate general said the FIR justified the PTI chief’s in­clusion in the probe.

The bench while rejecting the Balochistan government’s request, also turned down Imran’s plea for adjourning the hearing to a later date. Justice Afridi remarked that the investigation report in the case had been submitted and the court had to examine the facts.

Justice Hilali observed that the petitioner has challenged the contents of the FIR. The petition­er’s lawyer Latif Khosa said that the JIT is controversial, and “we do not accept it”.

A division bench of the BHC comprising Chief Justice Naeem Afghan and Justice Aamir Nawaz Rana on 15-06-23 had dismissed the PTI chief’s application to quash an FIR registered on the complaint of the slain lawyer’s son. In the FIR Imran Khan was nominated regarding the assassi­nation of Shar.

Shar was shot dead by unidenti­fied assailants near Alamo Chowk on Airport Road on June 06, this year. According to the police, the senior Supreme Court lawyer re­ceived 15 bullet injuries and died on the spot. Two days later, the po­lice booked Imran Khan in the case on the complaint of the lawyer’s son.

The murdered lawyer, Shar, had filed a constitutional peti­tion against the former PM in the BHC, seeking proceedings against the former premier under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitu­tion. Earlier, the IG Balochistan submitted the investigation re­port of Shar’s murder case to the court, which stated that accord­ing to the FIR, the victim was be­ing threatened for filing a petition under Article 6 against Imran.

The report stated that during the investigation, a seven-mem­ber JIT was formed by the Min­istry of Interior on June 8. Since then, eight meetings of the JIT have been held under the chair­manship of DIG CTD.

The JIT had decided to inves­tigate four individuals on the matter, one of which was the PTI chief, the report revealed. Summons notices were sent to the deposed premier on June 19 in this regard.