Court grants interim bail to Imran till Oct 31 in prohibited funding case

A special court in Islamabad granted on Monday former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan interim bail till October 31 in the prohibited funding case, Aaj News reported.

Special Judge Raja Asif Mehmood directed Imran to submit a bail bond of Rs100,000.

In his petition, Imran pleaded with the court to bar the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from arresting him in the case.

The FIA had filed a case against 11 people including Imran in the foreign funding case. The petition was filed by the FIA’s Corporate Banking Circle.

The suspects were alleged to be violating the Foreign Exchange Act.

The FIR read that PTI had an account in a private bank and the manager of the bank has also been included in the case. The FIR mentioned that the bank account was created in the name of “Naya Pakistan”.

IHC grants protective bail to Imran Khan in prohibited funding case

The complaint also named Sardar Azhar Tariq Khan, Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Syed Yunus Ali Raza, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Tariq Rahim Sheikh, Tariq Shafi, Faisal Maqbool Shaikh, Hamid Zaman and Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhary as beneficiaries of the PTI account in question.

Meanwhile, last week, Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted bail to the PTI chairman in the same case till October 17 against surety bonds of Rs5,000.

ECP's verdict

Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued its verdict in the prohibited funding case stating that the PTI did indeed receive prohibited funding.

A three-member bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja announced the judgment. In its verdict, the ECP said that PTI did indeed receive prohibited funding and kept 13 bank accounts hidden.

"The data obtained from SBP reveals that all the 13 accounts disowned by PTI were opened and operated by the senior PTI management and leadership at the Central and Provincial levels.

"In this regard, it is further added that PTI failed to mention and disclose three accounts which were also being operated by the senior leadership of the party," the verdict read.