Judge threats case: Warrant against former prime minister Imran Khan suspended

An Islamabad court in Pakistan on Tuesday suspended till March 16 a nonbailable arrest warrant against former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan for threatening a woman magistrate while addressing a public gathering here last yearThe Islamabad district and sessions court on Monday issued a nonbailable arrest warrant against Imran Khan for using threatening language against Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and the Islamabad police officialsThe Pakistan TehreekeInsaf PTI chief subsequently challenged Mondays order and Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani after hearing arguments suspended the arrest warrants till March 16 when the next hearing has been scheduledKhans counsel contended that due to security threat to the life of petitioner the petitioner could not appear before the learned trial courtKhan the 70yearold former cricketerturnedpolitician who has been recovering from a gunshot injury from an assassination attempt in Wazirabad last year has skipped indictment hearings in these casesNow to come up for arguments on March 16 In the meanwhile operation of the impugned order is hereby suspended till the next date the court maintainedLawyers Naeem Panjotha and Intizar Panjotha appeared in court in Tuesdays hearing where Panjotha argued that all the sections invoked against the PTI chief were bailable to which the judge asked if nonbailable arrest warrants had been issued for Khan earlier as wellBefore this arrest warrants have not been issued in the case related to threatening the woman judge the lawyer repliedThe court then directed Khans counsel to attach the documents submitted along with the petitionI have been reading these documents for the past 15 minutes but I cant understand what they say Judge Gilani saidAt one point during the hearing Panjotha contended that the PTI chief was the exprime minister and it was the governments responsibility to provide him adequate security But instead they have withdrawn his securityHere the judge asked if PTI had a letter that proved that Khans security had been withdrawnI can provide it to you by tomorrow the lawyer repliedFor his part the governments lawyer revealed that arrest warrants for Khan were also issued in the Toshakhana caseAlso Read Shehbaz Sharif accuses Imran Khan of creating hurdles in IMF programmeA sessions court had directed the police on Monday to arrest the PTI chief in the case and present him in court by March 18Meanwhile the judge remarked that the expremier was leading an election rally in Lahore to which his lawyer stated that the PTI chairman had appeared in the judicial complex last monthMeanwhile a team of Islamabad Police on Monday flew to Lahore to arrest Khan for threatening the woman judge after the district and sessions court issued his nonbailable arrest warrant for failing to attend the hearing in that caseSubsequently Gilani asked Khans counsel to submit security documents in court and suspended the arrest warrants till March 16 He also issued notices to the respondents in the case in which the PTI chairman had on August 20 condemned the police as well as the judiciary over the alleged custodial torture of ShahbazGill and announced that his party would file cases against Inspector General of Police IGP Dr Akbar Nasir Khan the DIG and Additional District and SessionsJudge Zeba Chaudhry Khan was initially booked under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code PPC and the AntiTerrorism Act ATA Besides Islamabad High Court IHC also initiated contempt of court proceedings against himHowever the IHC later removed the terrorism charges and also pardoned Khan following an apology in the contempt case by the former premierThe PTI chief is in the crosshairs for buying gifts including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profitKhan has heavily criticised the state institutions after a botched attempt by police to arrest him from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore earlier this monthAccording to Khan he was facing at least 80 different cases in various courts across PakistanKhan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a noconfidence vote in his leadership which he alleged was part of a USled conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia China and AfghanistanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever