The Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted on Monday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan’s plea against the cancellation of bail by lower courts in nine cases against him.
A division bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard the ousted premier’s application pertaining to three cases in connection with the May 9 riots, three concerning protests in Islamabad, Toshakhana case, violation of Section 144 and one attempt to murder case. Six of these bail pleas were before different district and session courts and three were before anti-terrorism courts.
The IHC reinstated Imran’s bail and annulled the different trial courts’ decisions to cancel the same.
The division bench also directed the trial courts to hold proceedings on Imran’s applications and hear the matter afresh.
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The lower courts had cancelled Imran’s bail over non-appearance.
Imran had appealed to the IHC to direct the trial courts to hear the cases on merit and bar the authorities from arresting him in these cases till a final verdict is issued.
Separately, the IHC reserved its verdict earlier today on the Federal Investigation Agency’s plea to hold in-camera proceedings for Imran’s bail application in the cipher case.
The FIA made this prayer a day earlier citing diplomatic concerns if the matter was heard before an open court, prompting the defence counsel to question what the federal body fears will be made public when the case against the former premier is that he made a sensitive document public.
