LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday granted protective bail to former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan till April 26 in a case registered under sedition charges in Islamabad.
“Imran Khan should approach the relevant court to get bail,” remarked the judge who took up the bail plea of Imran Khan.
Earlier, the PTI Chief appeared before the Lahore High Court while Advocate Azhar Siddique and Salman Safdar represented him in the case.
His personal security accompanied him on his way to the Lahore High Court in today’s hearing on his bail plea.
He was booked on the complaint of a magistrate over charges of using ‘foul language against an officer of an intelligence agency during an interview to a TV channel.
The PTI chief filed the bail plea through his lawyer Barrister Salman Safdar and submitted that the case registered against him was politically motivated. He said its registration was against the laws.
He asked the court to grant him bail so he could appear before the relevant court.
The authorities had earlier submitted a report before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which showed that 29 cases were registered against him only in the federal capital.
After arrival at the LHC, Imran Khan talked to the reporters and said that “everything was being done to ensure NRO,”. He said the people would not take them serious in the world if the country turned out to be a banana republic.
“For NRO, they have done this with the country. They register cases on daily basis and the thousands of the workers are in the jail,” said Khan, adding that he was known in the world and there would be damage to the country if any news [about his arrest] spread across the world.
He stated that criticism is allowed in democracy and that was the reason it was at the top, and in dictatorship, it is not allowed.
“The society lags behind when criticism is not allowed in the dictatorship,” he added. He warned that there would be a huge loss of the country if the Supreme Court got divided.
