Islamabad: A day after Pakistan’s Supreme Court termed Imran Khan’s arrest ‘invalid and unlawful’, the former prime minister was on Friday granted bail for two weeks by Islamabad High Court in a corruption case.
Imran, who was ousted as Prime Minister a year ago, was nabbed from Islamabad High Court premises on Tuesday in the Al-Qadir Trust case after the country’s anti-corruption body (National Accountability Bureau) issued an arrest warrant against him.
“The court has granted Imran Khan a two-week interim bail and directed the authorities not to arrest him in the case,” Imran’s lawyer Khawaja Harris was quoted as saying by AFP.
However, this is only a temporary reprieve for the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief.
There are 121 cases against him across Pakistan, so the legal battle is far from over for Imran.
Pakistan’s Interior minister Rana Sanaullah Khan has pledged to re-arrest Imran.
A team of Lahore Police also reportedly left for Islamabad to arrest the ex-PM in connection with a slew of cases registered against him in Punjab province.
The police team is headed by the Deputy Inspector General (Investigation), Dawn newspaper reported.
Imran faces 121 cases in different provinces of Pakistan, including for committing treason and blasphemy, and inciting violence and terrorism. While 12 cases of terrorism have been registered against him in Lahore, there are 14 such cases in Faisalabad.
Imran’s party wants the Supreme Court to merge all 121 cases against him into one, and issue pre-arrest bail in all the cases.
