ISLAMABAD/LAHORE    -    A local court on Monday dis­missed the appeal of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI)’s chair­man Imran Khan and main­tained his non-bailable arrest warrants in Toshakhana case.

Additional Session Judge Zaf­ar Iqbal announced the verdict which was earlier reserved af­ter hearing arguments from the counsels. 

In a three pages written or­der, the court said PTI’s chair­man Imran Khan deliberate­ly did not appear despite he was in the position to attend the proceeding as he was ap­pearing in other courts on the same day. The order said that Imran Khan neither appeared nor he gave assurance regard­ing his attendance in personal capacity before the court due to which his petition was being terminated.

It further said that the pe­titioner did not challenge the decision of this court before the higher forum. 

The court said that as per the counsel of Imran Khan, he was to appear before the session court on February 28, besides attending proceeding in Islamabad High Court (IHC) and in judicial complex. 

The order said that trial was started on December 15, and PTI’s chairman was summoned on January 8, but since that he never appeared before the court even once, the order said.

It added that the court had been grant­ing exemptions from appearance to the accused on every hearing on his lawyer’s request. The court said that it had issued arrest warrants against Imran Khan for in­dictment in Toshakhana case but he could not appear before it even on this day.

The court said that petitioner’s counsel had stated that Imran Khan could not even think about to skip his attendance delib­erately. He had also stated that there were threats to the life of his client and he was already attacked once. The lawyer had also stated that his client could not appear due to his attendance before high court. 

Earlier, during the course of proceeding Imran Khan’s lawyer Ali Bokhari prayed the court to grant a way to his client as he wanted to surrender before the court. It may be mentioned here that the Islam­abad police on Sunday had raided the house of PTI’s chairman Imran Khan in Zaman Park Lahore after the court had is­sued his non-bailable arrest warrants in Toshakhana case. Meanwhile, The Lahore High Court (LHC) Registrar Office on Mon­day put objections to petitions filed by Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Im­ran Khan for protective bail. The office noted that already some PTI leaders had obtained protective bails in the same FIRs but copies of the bail granting orders were not attached with the petitions filed by the PTI chairman.