Moving IHC, IK says govt planning to arrest him during Eid holidays

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, Wednesday, moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) apprehending that the federal government is planning a surreptitious operation to arrest him during Eid and sought the court’s direction to Inspector General (IG) Islamabad to provide all information regarding any and all secret FIRs registered against him.

A single bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq will hear the petition today (Thursday). The petition has been moved by Imran Khan and cited Secretary Interior, IG Islamabad police, and Director General (FIA) as respondents.

The PTI chief stated that since the regime change he has been a constant target of the respondents on the behest of the incumbent PDM government and he has been subjected to illegal and unlawful treatment by the respondents. After the dissolution of the provincial assemblies of Punjab and KPK, the situation has deteriorated drastically and he has been nominated in criminal cases almost on a daily basis, he added.

Faisal Chaudhry, Imran’s counsel said that an onslaught has been unleashed upon his client and his party affiliates while the registration of false and frivolous FIRs has been made a new norm by the respondents and numerous FIRs have been registered against the petitioner on total baseless and false accusations.

He adopted the stance that the respondents have miserably failed to abide by their legal and constitutional duties and they are impeding the petitioner’s fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution inter alia access to justice, fair trial, freedom of expression and free speech to appease their new owners.

The counsel argued that the respondents, in violation of the law and constitution without providing lawful reasoning are adamant to criminalise the fundamental rights of the petitioner while also lacking lawful reasons/ justifications to carry this well thought illegal operation against the petitioner, and have no valid basis to initiate such woeful actions against him.

He also argued that he has valid reasons to believe that while his arrival in Islamabad in order to attend court hearings he will be subjected to illegal and unlawful arrest by the respondents and to achieve their ulterior motives criminal cases/ FIRs have been registered in a clandestine manner to effect his arrest.

Faisal further said that this court while taking serious exception to the above referred situation vide its order dated 28-03-2023 passed in his writ instructed the respondents to submit the detail of the cases/ FIRs registered against the petitioner while the respondents in pursuant to the court order submitted a list of pending cases against the petitioner. He continued that the petitioner following the due course of law is currently on bail in all cases.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023