The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday termed the arrest of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan as “legal”, Geo News reported. The PTI chief was arrested outside the IHC by Rangers on a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) warrant in the Al-Qadir Trust case. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) launched an investigation against Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi and others for the alleged gain of hundreds of canals of land in the name of the Al Qadir University Trust, which allegedly caused a loss of £190 million to the National Was. Treasury.
According to the allegations, Khan and the other accused allegedly adjusted 50 billion rupees – 190 million pounds at the time – sent to the government by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA). Former PM Imran Khan had registered the trust for the Al-Qadir University project on December 26, 2019. Appeared in court in two cases.
His arrest followed months of political crisis and came hours after the army reprimanded the ex-international cricketer for accusing him of involvement in a plot to kill a senior official. Earlier, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Ameer Farooq on Tuesday reserved judgment on the arrest of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan, Geo News reported.
The IHC expressed displeasure over the law enforcement agencies taking Imran Khan into custody from the court premises at around 2.15 pm. Chief Justice Amir Farooq said that if the PTI chief was arrested illegally, “he would have to be released”, Dawn reported. The Islamabad High Court summoned the director general of the National Accountability Bureau and the prosecutor following the prime minister’s arrest before the high court premises.
Justice Farooq directed the government to immediately inform the court who was behind the arrest and in what cases Imran was arrested. And the Additional Attorney General has been asked to appear in the court within 15 minutes.
The IHC CJ said he was showing “restraint” and warned that he would “summon” the prime minister if the Islamabad police chief did not appear before the court. Justice Farooq said, “Come to the court and tell us why and in what case Imran has been arrested.” “We asked you to appear before the court within 15 minutes, but you came after 45 minutes,” said the IHC CJ, expressing anger over the delay.
Meanwhile, protests were reported in several cities across the country. The protesters raised slogans against the coalition government by burning tyres. In addition, water cannons were used against protesters gathered outside Imran’s Zaman Park residence, Dawn reported. The police in Lahore were put on high alert. A statement issued by the Lahore Police said that security has been beefed up across the city on the instructions of Lahore’s Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi.
In Karachi, both the lanes of Shayra Faisal were blocked after PTI MNAs and MPAs blocked the roads. Demonstrations were also reported at Main University Road, near Old Sabzi Mandi, Banaras Chowk and Al-Asif Square. Separately, the Sindh chapter of PTI issued a protest call, asking supporters to assemble outside Insaf House at 4 p.m. Demonstrations were also reported from Peshawar’s Hashtnagari and GT Road, Bannu and Charsadda, Dawn reported.