Imran Khan’s arrest warrant issues by a magistrate
ISLAMABAD: A local magistrate in Islamabad has issued former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest warrant in a case of allegedly threatening the government officials including District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry.
The case against the former premier was registered on August 20 with the Margala Police Station in the federal capital.
The magistrate issued the arrest warrant on the request of the police on Saturday.
Imran was booked in a terrorism case on the complaint of Islamabad Saddar Magistrate Ali Javed for threatening the additional sessions judge of the federal capital, Zeba Chaudhry.
The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with the daily Information Times, was lodged with the Margalla police following a speech of Imran Khan at the PTI rally at the federal capital’s F9 Park in August.
The FIR also carried Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Sep 19 ordered removal of terrorism sections from the case registered against the PTI chief for threatening the woman judge and officials of Islamabad police.
Subsequently, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) directed Imran to approach the sessions court for interim bail as the matter did not fall in its jurisdiction after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dropped terrorism charges against him.
Earlier today, the PTI chief submitted an affidavit in the IHC in the contempt case for threatening the additional district and sessions judge.
In the affidavit, the former premier assured the court that he would never do anything in future that would hurt the dignity of any court and the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary.
The PTI chief also said that he will fully follow what he said before the court in the last hearing and added that he is ready to take further action to satisfy the court in this regard.
The deposed premier further said that he is “willing to apologise” if the judge thinks that he crossed a “red line”.
Under the law, the PTI chief is required to approach the relevant court for bail as the earlier bail has become ineffective after the transfer of the case to the sessions court.
The PTI chief had made the controversial remarks during a party rally in the capital on August 20 and was subsequently booked for “terrorism” under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Another case was registered against the former premier for violating Section 144. However, new sections were later added to the FIR, against which the PTI chief had approached the court.
The sections added to the FIR later were Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 186 (imprisonment for three months), and 188 (disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Imran alleged that Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry knew that party leader Shahbaz Gill was tortured, but she did not release him on bail. He threatened that he would take legal action against the judge and the Inspector general of Islamabad police.
Several sentences from Imran’s speech were made part of the FIR. It said that Imran Khan’s speech in this design and style was aimed at spawning fear and panic among the police authorities, the judiciary and the public.
It added that Imran’s threat of “filing a case against you” had spread fear among the police authorities, the judiciary and the public and destroyed the peace in the country. The complainant requested the police to take legal action against the accused.
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