Establishment piling up pressure on state institutions, PTI says after iddat ruling delay

• Delay in ruling shatters PTI's hopes of Imran Khan's release.
• Institutions trying to keep party founder behind bars, Hasan says.
• “Pakistan is suffering due to a dictatorship of an individual.”
  

A delay in the ruling on the un-Islamic nikah case has apparently shattered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hopes of the early release of its founder Imran Khan from prison.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan said state institutions were trying to keep the party founder behind bars despite him securing bail in several cases.

“Establishment’s pressure on state institutions is piling up,” he stated while reacting to the delay in the announcement of a reserved verdict in the iddat case against the PTI founder and his wife Bushra Bibi by an Islamabad sessions court earlier today.

The Islamabad court had reserved the verdict last week on appeals filed by the PTI founder and his wife against their conviction in the iddat case

However, District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand sought his recusal from the case because it would not be appropriate for him to announce the verdict owing to repeated expression of no-confidence by Khawar Maneka, Bushra's ex-husband and the petitioner in the case.

In the presser today, the PTI spokesperson said the party has been witnessing “murder of justice” for the last two years and expressed fears that the former prime minister would have to spend more time in jail.

Khan, the deposed premier, has been behind bars since August last year after he was convicted in the Toshakhana case.

Although, the PTI founder was granted bail in the case, he remains incarcerated owing to his conviction in other cases including un-Islamic marriage and cipher.

He said the PTI founder should have been released from jail after his sentence was suspended in the Toshakhana case.

“We fear that more cases will be lodged against the PTI founder soon,” the party’s spokesperson said, claiming that iddat and cipher cases against him were “baseless”.

Similarly, Hasan said PTI Vice Chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was booked in additional cases related to May 9 when his release from prison was certain.

Hasan said the PTI was not in conflict with the institute of the army but an individual. “Pakistan is suffering due to a dictatorship of an individual.”

Referring to the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report on the 1971 fall of Dhaka, the PTI spokesperson said the report did not contain anything against the military.

He said then military ruler General Yahya Khan put the state at stake to prolong his rule. “Similarly, today one person has put the state in difficulty to remain in power,” the spokesperson added.