by Press Trust of IndiaAfter a prolonged standoff with officials, Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan walked out of the Islamabad High Court premises on Friday night despite being granted bail in several cases.
Three different benches of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted relief to the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief.
However, despite being granted bail, Khan remained inside the premises as he and his legal team were apparently negotiating with the authorities upon their exit from the court.
Dawn news website quoted a senior official as saying, “Imran Khan finally came out of the Islamabad High Court. After being granted bail in key cases, he stayed inside the premises for hours and the court also stayed his arrest.”
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He said the former prime minister was escorted by state security in the vehicle of Islamabad’s Deputy Inspector General (Security).
After hearing the arguments of the lawyers, the court granted protective bail to Khan till May 17 in all the cases filed after his arrest on Tuesday, when he was present in the court.
Khan, in his plea, had told the court that he was not aware of the violence but cases have been registered. Granting bail, the judge remarked that he should condemn all incidents of violence in the wake of his arrest.
The bench also ordered the authorities to provide adequate security to Khan.
Khan released a video message on his extended stay at the Islamabad High Court, saying he was being kept there despite being granted bail by the court.
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“They abducted me and kept me here forcefully. I want to tell the whole country that this is their bad intention, they want to do something again [and] The entire country should prepare itself to protest”, Imran said.
Earlier, a bench of the IHC had also ruled that Khan should not be arrested in any case till Monday, a kind of blanket protection in all cases. He was asked to appear before the Lahore High Court on Monday.
Khan’s lawyer Shoaib Shaheen told the media that the former prime minister has been granted “full bail” in all cases and cannot be arrested until Monday.
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