LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) provided temporary relief to former Pakistan PM Imran Khan by staying his arrest till Thursday.
Hearing a petition filed by PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday, the LHC summoned Punjab’s top security and administrative officials and asked them to stop the police operation at the Zaman Park residence of Khan that had run into determined resistance by PTI supporters.
The police had laid siege to Imran Khan’s residence all of Tuesday amidst firing of tear gas shells and baton charges that converted an upscale part of Lahore into a war zone. Khan’s supporters burst into celebrations after the security forces retreated following the court order.
“Dr Usman Anwar, IGP, Punjab, appeared before the court and said the Lahore police had to launch the operation as the Islamabad police had brought an arrest warrant in the Toshkhana gifts case. The PTI advocate told the court that the sessions court, Islamabad, had issued the order to ensure Khan’s presence in the court on March 18 in the Toshkhana gifts case… He said why did the police launch an operation to arrest him four days before,” reported agencies.
LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh asked the PTI counsel whether the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is hearing the PTI plea to cancel the arrest warrants of Khan. “The counsel informed me that the IHC is hearing Khan’s petition. On this Justice Sheikh said let the IHC decide the matter and meanwhile, the government should stop the police operation forthwith,” the official said.
The IHC on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a petition filed by Khan to suspend arrest warrants against him in the Toshkhana case. Khan was ousted from power in April last year by a combined opposition, which had sunk its differences to remove him. Khan alleged he was removed as part of a US-led conspiracy because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.