An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday extended interim bail of the former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan in three cases, ARY News reported. The court granted bail to Khan in three cases registered against him at the police stations Kahna and Bhara Kahu. The court while extending interim bail of the former prime minister ordered police to initiate a transparent inquiry, and directed that delay will not be tolerated at any cost. “We are not supporting the accused nor the prosecution, but inquiry should be conducted transparently,” ARY news quoted the judge as saying. Earlier, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the PTI chairman and other party leaders in two arson cases. The ATC judge Abher Gul Khan issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the PTI chief and other party leaders including Mian Aslam Iqbal, Hammad Azhar, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema and Hassan Ullah Niazi. The arrest warrants were issued for their continuous absence in the hearings of the two arson cases – 23/366 (Model Town police station) and 23/1078 (Naseerabad police station), ARY news reported. It is pertinent to mention here that the PTI chief had been facing over 100 cases under different charges in the country.
Earlier on July 6, Khan had accused his political opponents of being “out to kill him”, and added that he would stay in Pakistan and contest all court cases despite his well-wishers abroad urging him to leave the country On July 3, Imran Khan lashed out at the Shehbaz Sharif government, and alleged that the administration has “made a plan” to put him in jail and the whole episode that transpired over his arrest was “pre-planned”. Addressing the nation, former PM Imran Khan said, “I want the nation to know how a plan has been made to arrest me on the basis of false and baseless cases. A lawyer is killed in Quetta and without any investigation and proof, Shahbaz Sharif’s advisor comes on TV on the same day and says that the murder was done by Imran Khan and later the video of the same lawyer’s widow shows who did it”. On May 9, former PM and PTI Chairman Imran Khan was arrested from inside the High Court in Islamabad by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the charges of corruption in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust, which he owns alongside his wife, Bushra Bibi. Following Khan’s arrest, his party called for demonstrations, which turned violent at many places. The administration resorted to crackdown and many arrests were made across the country. The people accused in the May 9 violence are being tried at military courts