Al-Qadir Trust Case: Imran Khan receives bail till June 19

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case has been extended until June 19 against surety bonds of Rs 500,000, according to Dawn.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf arrived at the Federal Judicial Complex shortly after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered him to appear before a relevant accountability court within three working days.
In the Al-Qadir Trust case, the judge granted Khan bail until June 19 in exchange for Rs 500,000 in surety bonds.

According to the Al-Qadir Trust case, the PTI chief and his wife, Bushra Bibi, received billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from a real estate firm in exchange for legalising Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the previous PTI government.

On May 9, the PTI Chief was arrested, sparking a nationwide protest. According to Dawn, the PTI chief immediately approached the IHC for release, but it declared his arrest legal.

Imran had then approached the Supreme Court, which on May 11, termed his arrest “invalid and unlawful” and directed him to appear before the IHC the next day.

Subsequently, the IHC granted Imran bail in the case for two weeks and stopped authorities from arresting the PTI chief till May 17 in any case registered in Islamabad after May 9.

Meanwhile, an Islamabad accountability court declared the bail plea of the PTI Chief’s wife Bushra Bibi in the Al Qadir Trust case as “infructuous” after the NAB Investigation Officer Mian Umer Nadeem said her arrest was “not needed”.

Judge Mohammad Bashir presided over the hearing. Bibi, her counsel Khawaja Harris and NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi appeared in court, according to Dawn.
At the outset of the hearing, Abbasi said, “Imran issued a statement on May 13, where he used inappropriate language for NAB, the chairman and spread false propaganda against the accountability watchdog.”

He argued that the PTI chief made statements with the ill intention of pressuring the NAB. “We never raided or attacked Imran’s Zaman Park residence, neither did we ever issue arrest warrants for his wife,” the prosecutor general said.