LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf incarcerated founding chairman Imran Khan on Saturday approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking post-arrest bail in eight cases of May 9 riots including an attack on the corps commander’s residence.

Eight separate bail petitions have been filed before the LHC in as many cases through Barrister Salman Safdar.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Aalia Neelum and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural will take up the petitions on Monday.

An anti-terrorism court had on Nov 27 denied bail to the former prime minister in these cases.

The petitions mainly argued that the prosecution failed to establish the petitioner’s association with the unfortunate occurrences narrated in the FIRs.

They said the petitioner has been implicated in the May 9 cases as a result of a well-orchestrated plan merely to harass and humiliate him for political reasons even though admittedly he was in the custody of the NAB.

The arrest of the petitioner was never required in the cases, which was evident from the fact that police remained reluctant to secure his arrest during five months and 12 days after the dismissal of his pre-arrest bail by the trial court.

The petitions alleged that the indifferent behaviour of police and lack of effort in securing the arrest of the petitioner at a time when he was detained at Adiala Jail, supplement the argument that arrest of the petitioner was not required in the cases.

The sole allegation against the petitioner in the cases is of “abetment”, which has been supplemented by the prosecution most vaguely, the pleas added.

They argued that the trial judge overlooked the fact that frivolous and baseless allegations related to the May 9 events have already been rejected due to inconsistencies in the story of the investigating agency.

Moreover, the trial judge also passed a lengthy order by ignoring the basic principle of the law of bail, laid down by the superior courts that “deeper appreciation of evidence should not be done at bail stage and only tentative assessment should be done.”

The petitions argued that Imran Khan has been facing an unprecedented political victimisation for two years. The May 9 cases are yet another effort by the state/police to implicate the petitioner in a criminal matter under the sole allegation of abetment, they added.

The petitions ask the LHC to set aside the trial court’s decision and grant bail to the former prime minister in the eight FIRs.

Denying bail to the PTI founding chairman, the ATC had declared that the charges of abetting and conspiring with the perpetrators of the May 9 riots against the petitioner were not ordinary in nature.

“The offences fall within the prohibitory clause of section 497 of CrPC. Petitioner was found guilty,” ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill had observed in his order.

The judge had noted that the entire case of the prosecution revolved around the stance that due to the criminal conspiracy and abetment of the petitioner (Imran Khan), the PTI workers and other senior leadership committed the occurrence.

Therefore, he said, the argument of the petitioner’s counsel that his client was behind the bar at the time of offence had no weight.

The judge had also rejected another stance by the counsel that the petitioner’s post-arrest bail in so many other cases had already been allowed by different courts.

“This court also is of the view that it is not an ordinary case of abetment, instigation or conspiracy,” the trial judge had remarked in his order.

He had observed that being the founding chairman of PTI, the petitioner’s speeches and directions were strictly followed by his workers and supporters.

Separately, ATC-III Judge Arshad Javed had on Nov 8, 2024 granted post-arrest bail to Imran Khan in four other cases, including burning the PML-N office in Model Town, a container near Kalma Chowk, police vehicles in Gulberg, and violence at Sherpao Bridge during the May 9 riots.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2025