Imran Khan's arrest warrant in judge threatening case stayed

• PTI chief gets relief from arrest till tomorrow.
• Khan's lawyers term judicial magistrate's decision "illegal".
• Court serves notices to all relevant parties.

A local court in Islamabad on Thursday suspended the non-bailable arrest warrant of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the judge-threatening case, till tomorrow (Friday), providing relief to the former prime minister for the day.

The arrest warrant was issued by Judicial Magistrate Malik Aman on Wednesday.

It should be noted that the charges, in this case, are related to a speech by Khan in which he allegedly threatened police and a female judge last year after one of his close aides, Shahbaz Gill, was denied bail in a sedition case.

The cricketer-turned-politician has faced a barrage of legal woes since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April last year by a united opposition led by his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

A convicted politician is liable to be disqualified for at least five years under the laws of the land.

Khan's lawyers Ali Bukhari and Faisal Chaudhry appeared before Additional Sessions Judge Sikandar Khan during a hearing at a district and sessions court in the federal capital.

Presenting the arguments, Chaudhry said that the judicial magistrate's decision to issue non-bailable arrest warrants was "illegal" as he had ignored some points of the detailed order of the additional sessions court judge.

Meanwhile, Bukhari maintained that a non-bailable warrant could not be issued as a bailable warrant was supposed to be issued first.

He also read out the order of suspension of the former premier's arrest warrant issued in the Toshakhana case.

He reiterated the security threats to Khan, saying that his appearance in court was risky as an assassination bid had been made on the PTI chief and the government had also withdrawn the security.

Bukhari further stated that Khan wasn't demanding to be discharged from the case but that a legal procedure should be adopted.

Contending that the former premier had serious security threats, Chaudhry said that even the administration changed the court due to them therefore, Khan's non-bailable arrest warrant should be suspended.

At this, the court suspended the non-bailable arrest warrant till tomorrow while issuing notices to the parties.