IHC rejects immediate suspension of Imran Khan’s arrest warrant
Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejects immediate suspension of Imran Khan’s arrest warrant!
A petition was filed on behalf of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by a local court of the federal capital over non-appearance in Toshakhana case.
During the hearing on the application regarding the issuance of an arrest warrant for Imran Khan in the Islamabad High Court, the Chief Justice said that Imran Khan will have to appear personally for the indictment.
The Chief Justice said that he will not pass any order which is out of common practice.
The hearing on the application regarding the issuance of an arrest warrant for Imran Khan has started in the Islamabad High Court and the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court is hearing this application.
During the hearing, Imran Khan’s lawyer Qaiser Imam said that the trial court granted Imran Khan’s request for exemption from attendance twice.
He said that Imran Khan appeared in three courts of Islamabad on February 28. Lawyer Qaiser Imam said that non-bailable warrants were issued after Imran Khan did not appear in court.
On which the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court remarked that those warrants were not for arrest, were they? He said that those warrants are for bringing the accused to court. Why not appear in front of it?
Chief Justice Islamabad Amir Farooq while giving remarks said that these warrants are not meant to put the accused in jail, right? Addressing the lawyer of Imran Khan, the Chief Justice said you should tell me how else the court should summon the accused.
Chief Justice Islamabad High Court said that this is the way to ensure the presence of the accused in the law.
Imran Khan’s lawyer said that hype was created to arrest his client.
He said that our request is that Imran Khan’s warrant should be cancelled, on which the Chief Justice asked that the warrant should be cancelled then what will happen? He said that the court is calling you to conduct the trial of the case.
“The Honourable Apex Court through multiple latest judgments have interpreted the law in favour of the accused person and adopted modern techniques as per the circumstances of the case and hence impugned orders are passed ignoring the modification in law,” the petition read.
“It is also a settled law that the superior courts being superior in the hierarchy of the adjudication are to be attended in priority and the same is legally and ethically followed by the petitioner,” it added.
“That the intention of the petitioner can be gathered by the precedent set by the petitioner of him appearing in all the courts In Islamabad, however, due to unavoidable circumstances was not able to appear before this honourable court and the set circumstances were actually not In control of the petitioner rather these were to add respect to the judiciary by appearing before the superior forums,” the petition added.
Imran Khan’s lawyers further maintained that the PTI chief is facing serious health issues as a consequence and continuation of the attack in Wazirabad and his medical consultants are continuously refraining him from any sort of travelling.
“At the same time the attending circumstances and situation expressly speak volumes of life threat to Khan’s life amongst other dire situations cumulatively are hindrances before his appearance before the court seeks indulgence of this honourable court to set aside the impugned orders,” it added.
