Farooq Naeem—AFP
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday granted protective bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan till Oct. 18 after his counsel argued that the former prime minister was facing arrest in a prohibited funding case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
A day earlier, the FIA had booked Khan and several PTI workers in a prohibited funding case related to the funds transferred to the PTI by the Abraaj Group. According to the first information report (FIR), the Abraaj Group transferred $2,100,000 to a PTI account in an Islamabad bank. In addition, it said, the party had also received financing from two bank accounts of Wooton Cricket Club, maintaining that the manager of the private bank had helped the FIA in its probe into the questionable transactions.
According to the FIR, the manager of the bank has also been nominated in the case. It said the bank management had failed to report 12 currency transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports to authorities concerned. Apart from Khan, Sardar Azhar Tariq, Tariq Shafi, and Younis Aamir Kiani have also been nominated in the FIR. It said an affidavit submitted to the ECP by businessman Arif Naqvi was false.
Bail hearing
The PTI chief was granted bail against a surety bond of Rs. 5,000 by Chief Justice Athar Minallah. During proceedings, Khan’s counsel maintained that his client had to seek bail from the IHC because a special court had already refused to hear the bail pleas of two suspects in the case.
Accepting this claim, the CJ said bail was being granted to Khan until his case could be taken up by the special court, adding that the case would be kept under trial and be heard if the problem were not resolved.