Islamabad HC Grants Bail To Imran Khan In Al-Qadir Trust Case, Bars Arrest Till May 17

A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted bail to former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in the Al-Qadir Trust case, a day after the Supreme Court termed his arrest from the court premises invalid and unlawful.

The court also barred authorities concerned from arresting Imran Khan till May 17 in any new case filed after May 9.

Khan is also expected to address a gathering as his party announced a rally on the occasion and asked followers to gather nearby the court.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hit out at Imran Khan for pushing the cash-strapped country towards destruction.

"Did the courts ever take notice when we were being sent to jail?" he asked.

The prime minister termed Imran Khan's claim that a US-backed conspiracy led to the ouster of his government as ''untrue''.

Sharif, the president of PML-N, said that PTI Chairman Khan and his party are liars and are pushing Pakistan towards destruction.

Sharif questioned the courts' silence over the jailing of leaders of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party during Khan's tenure.

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday declared that Khan's arrest was unlawful, but then asked the Islamabad high court to reconsider its initial decision to uphold the arrest.

"Your arrest was invalid, so the whole process needs to be backtracked," Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told Khan at a hearing in the capital Islamabad on Thursday.

The bench, which heard Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman's plea against his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case, expressed anger at the way Khan was taken into custody from the premises of the Islamabad High Court.

Khan was arrested on Tuesday from the Islamabad High Court and an accountability court on Wednesday handed him over to the National Accountability Bureau for eight days in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case.

Following the arrest of Khan in a corruption case by the Pakistan Rangers in Islamabad on Tuesday, his supporters attacked senior officers' residences and the Pakistan Army's installations in different parts of the country.