Asad Umar urges CJP: ‘Take suo motu notice of illegal actions against PTI chairman’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar Saturday wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, urging him to take suo motu notice of the government’s ‘illegal’ actions against Chairman PTI Imran Khan, and protect his fundamental right to life.

Asad Umar said that he wrote a letter to the CJP, asking him to take notice of the illegal attempts to stop the party head from reaching the Judicial Complex or arrest him despite clear court orders, says PTI Central Media Department.

Umar noted that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had barred the law enforcers from arresting Imran in the Toshakhana case and the Lahore High Court (LHC) prohibited his arrest in nine cases, besides directing the state authorities to refrain from coercive measures against him.

Imran, in compliance of the court direction, left from Lahore to attend the hearing here. However, Asad alleged that as the PTI chairman was on his way to Islamabad Saturday to appear before a trial court, the Punjab Police stormed his Zaman Park residence in Lahore, while the doors and walls had been razed to the ground.

The PTI leader said that the ICT police, in order to create terror and harassment, has blocked the roads leading to the Judicial Complex, Islamabad, and also blocked the Motorway and other highways to create hurdles in Imran’s lawful endeavour in pursuant to the court order.

Umar wrote that the unlawful and illegal actions were with the intention to arrest Imran in certain cases that were not in the knowledge of the PTI chairman. He added that the access of his legal team and media presence was refused to almost none, as his fundamental right to access to justice and fair trial has been hampered and compromised by the police and law enforcement agencies.

In the prevailing circumstances, Asad Umar told the CJP in the letter that he has ‘firm reasons’ to believe that the state in order to take revenge on the PTI chief is ‘hell-bent to compromise his liberty in the most unlawful manner’.

“And it has been reiterated by Imran Khan time and again that his life is in danger and he may face a bid to take his life.”

The PTI leader urged that ‘if the respondents are not stopped from acting illegally’ and arresting him, the former premier may face ‘unseen consequences’.

He requested that the matter be taken up in suo moto jurisdiction in order to save and protect Imran’s fundamental right to life.