LAHORE/ISLAMABAD    -      Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Thurs­day expressed his fears that the government had called the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting to use securi­ty as a pretext to justify post­ponement of the elections.

The imported govern­ment-convened NSC would expose the armed forces not only to the judiciary but di­rectly to the nation, he said in a statement here. 

Imran Khan said that now a meeting of the NSC had been called in a bid to postpone the elections using the current se­curity situation as a justifica­tion. He said that it was now fully clear that Pakistan Dem­ocratic Movement (PDM) want­ed to avoid the elections in any case. The PTI chairman further stated that the PDM government brought an unconstitutional law regarding the Supreme Court (SC) and passed a resolution against the judiciary in the Na­tional Assembly.

“It is now clear what PDM wants - any which way to get out of elections. They brought in an unconstitutional bill on SC & an NA resolution against Ju­diciary. Now tomorrow an NSC mtg called to try & use securi­ty as pretext for postponement of elections. This will pit armed forces directly against not just ju­diciary but also the nation,” Im­ran tweeted late Thursday.

Reacting over the detention of PTI senior leader Ali Amin Gan­dapur in Dera Ismail Khan, the PTI chairman said: “Today, a complete law of the jungle pre­vails in Pakistan”.

Khan said that the PDM and its handlers had a one point agen­da, and that was to go after PTI workers and leadership. “It was decided preemptively to arrest Ali Amin Gandapur despite bail. But they will still be decimated in the elections”, he said. 

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday extended interim bail to Chairman Paki­stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan in eight cases registered against him till April 18.

A two-member bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurang­zeb conducted hearing of the bail petitions in different cases in­cluding the judicial complex riot case. Besides extending Khan’s bail, the IHC bench also accept­ed the former prime minister’s request seeking exemption from his personal appearance before the court.

During the hearing, Advocate General (AG) Islamabad Jahangir Jadoon said that if Imran Khan did not appear before the court on the next hearing how will the court proceed then.

The IHC Chief Justice remarked that the petitioner has to appear before the court to file the bail pe­tition but if he did not appear be­fore the court then action will be taken against him as per the law. He added that however, the court does not want to confine him by mentioning this in the order.

In his exemption plea, Khan maintained that more than 140 alleged baseless and fake cas­es were filed against him. His counsel said that Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif would lay the foundation stone of the lawyers’ complex in the high court today while Imran’s presence was also subject to tight security arrange­ments.

He further said that any un­certain situation cannot be over­looked and therefore the request for exemption from his presence for one day may be granted. The PTI chairman continued that the police did not provide satisfacto­ry fool-proof security. He further said that his security was with­drawn by the government de­spite concerns.

Khan said, “I have appeared in courts before, I believe in the rule of law and there is no hesitation in appearing in court.”