Imran gets bail in four cases, including parliament attack

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday approved the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s bail application in four cases pertaining to torture on SSP and attack on parliament and PTV headquarters, registered against him after the PTI’s 2014 rally.

The decision was reserved by ATC judge Shahrukh Arjumand after Imran’s legal counsel Babar Awan and prosecutor Shafaqat Chaudhry presented their arguments. The cases pertaining to torture on SSP and attack on parliament and PTV headquarters were filed against Imran Khan after PTI’s 2014 sit-in in the federal capital.

In his arguments, Imran Khan’s lawyer Babar Awan had informed the court that 11 witnesses had recorded their statements in the SSP torture case and not even one was against his client. Awan said the PTI chairman was not present at the incident spot when SSP Asmatullah Junejo was tortured.

The prosecutor requested the court to reject Imran Khan’s bail plea and maintained that he provoked party workers to attack the police. Talking to the media outside the court, Imran Khan said the decision proves that “I am sadiq (truthful) and ameen (righteous) not a terrorist.”

The PTI chairman said US President Donald Trump lacks wisdom after the latter once again levelled allegations on Pakistan. Imran Khan said Donald Trump is unaware of the historical facts about Afghan war and the destruction that it caused in Pakistan.

He maintained that enemies of Pakistan provoked Trump to give such statement and reiterated that it was not Pakistan s war that cost us 70 000 lives and heavy economic losses. He said America is disrespecting Pakistan after all these sacrifices and such things happen when a state fight someone else s war for money.

Imran also said that this is the reason why he discouraged leaders from fighting someone else s war. Today the time has shown us that we will never become a part of someone else s war no matter how much money is offered. The facts are out in the open now he said.

He remarked that when he stopped leaders from participating in the war he was labelled a rightist and Taliban Khan. “I kept on saying that this is not our war. However now it is clear the amount of damage Pakistan has sustained in the war,” he added.

Imran also lashed out at his political opponent Nawaz Sharif and said Nawaz keeps saying that he was disqualified on the basis of Iqama. His FZE company was non-operational and was being used to send Pakistan’s money abroad. This was just another way of laundering money.

The company did not have any other function except for laundering money. On the visit of Sharif brothers to Saudi Arabia, Imran remarked that the two brothers should be ashamed of themselves. They have approached another country to hide their theft, he alleged. They are approaching external forces just to save themselves, Imran alleged.

However, both Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif should know that the nation will not accept any National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), he asserted. The nation didn’t understand repercussions of the first NRO but now it won t accept it at any cost.

Reiterating his demand for snap elections Imran said that early elections are the need of the hour. The government has done nothing except for protecting criminals. In such a situation it better to hold early elections as no work is being done. He added PTI is ready for snap elections.