Remarks against judge: Islamabad court confirms Imran Khan's bail

Islamabad: Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan secured his bail by a Sessions court in a case involving his controversial remarks against Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry.

Previous week, Civil Judge Kamran Basharat granted Imran Khan interim bail till October 13 against surety bonds of Rs50,000.

The Islamabad police had registered two cases under terrorism charges for passing threatening remarks against the judicial and police officers at a rally in F-9 Park on August 20.

However, on September 19, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) quashed the terror charges and directed to transfer of the case to a relevant court under the remaining sections in the FIR.

On September 30, Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim issued arrest warrants for Imran as he had not obtained bail from the sessions court where the case was transferred. Subsequently, the PTI chief approached IHC for pre-arrest bail, which was later accepted.

Earlier today, the former premier appeared before the court with his lawyer Babar Azan and PTI leader Asad Umar.

During the hearing, the court mentioned that Imran had failed to submit surety bonds worth Rs50,000. However, PTI lawyers requested that the amount should be reduced to Rs5,000.

Awan, presenting his arguments, said there were two cases registered against Imran -- one at the Kohsar police station and the other at the Margalla police station.

He said his client had been granted bail in the case registered at the Kohsar police station.

To this, the judge asked if the prosecutor had something to say.

Prosecutor Wajid Munir said that Section 505, which is a non-bailable offence, has been included in the case registered against Imran at the Kohsar police station.

Awan said another case against Imran had been registered at the Margalla police station. “The terrorism charges in the case were struck down by the IHC.”

The judge subsequently remarked that there were no non-bailable offences in this case, and confirmed the bail.

Moving on, the court ordered Khan to submit surety bonds worth Rs5,000 and Rs50,000 at the Margalla and Kohsar police stations respectively.