An Islamabad district and sessions court confirmed on Thursday bail to PTI chairman Imran Khan in a case linked to his controversial remarks against Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry at an August 20 public rally.

Last week, Civil Judge Kamran Basharat had granted interim bail to the former prime minister till October 13 against surety bonds worth Rs50,000.

On September 30, Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim issued arrest warrants for Imran. After the Islamabad High Court had struck down terror charges from the case registered against Imran, the case was transferred to a sessions court and the PTI chief had not obtained his bail from there.

Subsequently, the PTI chief approached IHC on October 2 with a plea for pre-arrest bail, which was later accepted.

Earlier today, the former prime minister arrived at the court amid elaborate security along with his lawyer Babar Awan and PTI leader Asad Umar.

During the hearing today, Awan said that there were two cases registered against Imran — one at the Kohsar police station and the other at the Margalla police station.

“In the case registered at the Kohsar police station, all the suspects have been granted bail,” he said.

Here, the judge asked the prosecutor if he had something to say. “Section 505, which is a non-bailable offense, has been included in the case registered against Imran at the Kohsar police station,” Prosecutor Wajid Munir replied.

“What were the accusations [in the case]?” Judge Basharat asked. “For passing instigating statements,” Munir responded.

At this, the court accepted Imran’s plea for bail.

Awan said that another case against Imran had been registered at the Margalla police station. “The terrorism charges in the case were struck down by the IHC. The PTI chief had threatened the inspector general of Islamabad after reports of Shahbaz Gill’s custodial torture emerged.”

The prosecutor said that Imran had threatened civil workers. “Where did he pass this statement? There are no non-bailable offenses in this case,” the judge observed here and confirmed the bail.

The court subsequently instructed the PTI chief to submit surety bonds worth Rs5,000 and Rs50,000 at the Margalla and Kohsar police stations respectively.

Contempt case

The decision to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran was taken by the IHC’s Justice Aamer Farooq on August 22 while hearing a petition challenging Gill’s police remand. The court had summoned Imran on August 31 and subsequently issued him a show-cause notice.

A day before the hearing, the former prime minister had submitted a reply before the IHC wherein he had expressed his willingness to “take back” his words about Judge Chaudhry if they were “regarded as inappropriate”. He had pleaded before the IHC that the judges who had agreed to initiate the case against him should consider withdrawing themselves from the bench as, according to him, they had pre-judged the matter.

However, the IHC had deemed the response to be “unsatisfactory” and asked the PTI chief to submit a “well-considered” response.

Following this, Imran submitted another reply to the court. In the revised response, Imran stopped short of rendering an unconditional apology.

On September 8, the IHC decided to indict Imran, once again calling his response “unsatisfactory”.

However, at the next hearing on September 22, when it was expected that charges would be framed against the PTI chief, Imran had offered to tender an apology to Judge Chaudhry and escaped the indictment.

Following his statement in the court, the larger bench hearing the case had said that it was “satisfied” with the apology and asked the PTI chief to submit an affidavit.

Prior to submitting the affidavit, Imran on Friday appeared before an Islamabad sessions court to personally apologise to Judge Chaudhry, but his apology was left hanging as the judge was on leave.

Meanwhile, in his affidavit, Imran said he had “realised during these (contempt) proceedings before the honourable court that he might have crossed a red line”. However, he added, he never intended to threaten Judge Chaudhry and “there was no intention behind the statement to take any action other than legal action”.

He said he wanted to assure the IHC that he was willing to explain and clarify before Judge Chaudhry that“ neither he nor his party seeks/sought any action“ against her and he was willing to apologise to her “if she got an impression that the deponent (Imran) had crossed a line”.

He also expressed his willingness to take any further steps that the IHC “deems necessary and appropriate for the satisfaction of the honourable court that he never intended to interfere in the process of the court or impugn the dignity or independence of the judiciary”.

At the most recent hearing on Monday (October 3), the IHC dismissed the show-cause notice issued to Imran, effectively ending contempt proceedings against the PTI chief.