The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan was “illegal”. The decision was made minutes after the PTI chief reached the Supreme Court.
EX PM Imran Khan had been arrested from inside a courtroom by Rangers, which the court found to be illegal. The three-member bench comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Athar Minallah, and the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) ordered his immediate release and asked him to appear before the Islamabad High Court the following day.
EX PM Imran Khan’s legal team argued that he had come to the Islamabad High Court to seek bail but was arrested from the court premises. The court ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Islamabad Inspector General of Police to produce Imran Khan within 30 minutes before the court, but security arrangements caused a delay in his appearance.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan questioned how a person could be arrested from the premises of the court, adding that people come to courts for justice. He also remarked that permission should be taken from the Registrar IHC before an arrest from the court premises. The court observed that NAB had disgraced the judiciary by arresting Imran Khan from the court premises.
The PTI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the Islamabad High Court’s decision calling Imran Khan’s arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “legal”. The plea stated that the amount being termed as corruption by NAB had already been deposited into the Supreme Court’s account, and the government could transfer it anywhere it wants from there.
EX PM Imran Khan was arrested by NAB in the Al-Qadir Trust case on Tuesday. The PTI chief was taken into custody by Rangers personnel from the premises of the Islamabad High Court, where he had gone to seek bail in multiple cases registered against him. Later, the Islamabad High Court had deemed the arrest “legal.”
