LAHORE MIRROR – – Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial remarked on Thursday that the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) violated the judiciary’s “prestige”.
The CJP passed the remark while heading a three-member bench hearing PTI’s petition challenging the arrest of party chief Imran Khan. Apart from the CJP, the bench also includes Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
At the outset of the hearing, former premier’s lawyer Hamid Khan informed the court that Imran Khan had come to IHC in order to secure an extension in his interim bail. When the PTI chief was getting his verification done, Rangers personnel broke into the room.
“Rangers misbehaved with Imran Khan and arrested him,” he added.
At this, CJP Bandial inquired about the case in which Imran Khan was seeking the bail extension.
On this point, Justice Athar Minallah inquired if a plea can be filed before the bio-metric verification is conducted.
At this, the lawyer said that Imran Khan went for bio-metric verification because a plea cannot be filed before that.
SC admits plea for hearing
The PTI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court a day earlier challenging the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision calling party chief Imran Khan’s arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “legal”.
Initially, the petition was returned to the PTI after registrar’s office attached objections to the plea.
The registrar’s office stated that the PTI chief did not approach the relevant forum, adding that he could file an intra-court appeal.
It further stated that the petition did not have the signatures of the PTI chief.
But, later on Wednesday, the PTI addressed the objections of the registrar’s office and it was accepted for a hearing.
Following Khan’s arrest on Tuesday inside the IHC, the PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi summoned an emergency meeting of the seven-member committee to review the situation and devise a comprehensive strategy to secure the safe and early release of the party chair.
The senior PTI leader had announced the party’s plan to move the apex court.
SOURCE: GEO NEWS
