Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday extended PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan’s interim bail till September 13 in connection with the terrorism case registered him.
Earlier the day, ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan took up the case. Imran’s lawyer, Babar Awan, appeared before the court and requested to give his arguments.
However, the judge remarked that cause [Imran] would have to appear before the court. “We will hear arguments on the bail petition today (Thursday),” the court observed and directed the prosecutor to ensuring Imran’s presence.
The court resumed the hearing at 12PM as Imran Khan appeared before the court.
On August 20, Imran khan was booked in a terrorism case for his controversial remarks about a female judge at a party rally in the capital. Last week, the Islamabad ATC had granted Imran interim pre-arrest bail till Sept 1 in the case.
On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed former premier to resubmit his response within the next seven days in the contempt of court case against him for threatening a female judge.
A five-member bench comprising IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, and Justice Babar Sattar heard the case.
At the outset of the hearing, the CJ Athar Minallah told the PTI lawyer Hamid Khan that the court had read Khan’s written response submitted on Tuesday.
I did not expect this from you," Justice Minallah said.
“I was expecting that the mistake made would have been admitted,” the CJ said as he expressed his disappointment.
“It was expected that you would have visited a subordinate court before coming here.”
Justice Minallah remarked that he was saddened by Imran’s reply and the subordinate court referred to therein was “the court of the common man”.
“The common man still doesn’t have access to the Supreme Court or the high court,” he added.