Islamabad High Court extends PTI chief’s pre-arrest bail till March 21 n Full bench to hear Imran’s plea against TV ban on 13th n Punjab govt has lifted Section 144, LHC told n LHC suspends ban on PTI leader’s live speeches.

QUETTA/ ISLAMABAD/LAHORE    -    The court of Judicial Magis­trate Quetta Thursday issued the non-bailable arrest warrants for Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chair­man Imran Khan in a case regis­tered against him on the charges of defaming state institutions.

The defamation case against former prime minister was reg­istered with the Bijli Road police station, Quetta. A couple of days ago, the police had registered the case on the complaint of a citizen Abdul Khalil Kakar, who had al­leged that Imran Khan made baseless allegations against state institutions.

It was argued in the petition that Imran Khan tried to spread hatred by making unjustified in­flammatory speeches against the officers of the state institu­tions. Imran Khan had also filed an application for protective bail in the Quetta case in the Lahore High Court.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thurs­day extended the interim bail of PTI’s Chairman Imran Khan till March 21, and directed him to join the investigation pro­cess in FIR regarding an attack on PML-N’s Leader Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha.

The court also granted one-time exemption from atten­dance to PTI chairman. Chief Justice Aamer Farooq heard the bail case of Imran Khan.

At the outset of hearing, Ad­vocate General Islamabad Ja­hangir Jadoon informed the court that the PTI’s chief had not joined the investigation process. He said that the ac­cused should let the trial pro­ceed in, at least, one case.

The IHC chief justice re­marked that the law would take its own course if Imran Khan didn’t join the investigation process as it had its own con­sequences. Justice Farooq ob­served that the court was grant­ing time because Imran Khan had to join the investigation.

Imran Khan’s counsel adopt­ed the stance that no investiga­tion officer had approached his client in this case. At this, the prosecutor said that it was ac­cused who had to appear be­fore the investigation team in­stead of the IO. The lawyer said that Imran Khan was ready to join the investigation.

After this, the hearing of the case was adjourned till March 21. It may be mentioned that the capital police had regis­tered an FIR against Imran Khan with regard to an attack on Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha during a protest after the de­cision of the ECP in Toshakha­na case.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday sus­pended a ban, imposed by the Pakistan Electronic Media Reg­ulatory Authority (PEMRA), on broadcast of live and record­ed speeches of Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza passed the orders while hearing a peti­tion, filed by the PTI chairman, challenging the Pemra ban on broadcast of his live and re­corded speeches. The court also referred the matter to a full bench for further hearing, and issued notices for March 13 to the respondents, includ­ing Pemra.

During the proceedings, Im­ran’s counsel pleaded with the court to set aside the ban for being unconstitutional.

The counsel for Pemra con­tended that the matter did not fall under the jurisdiction of the court. He submitted that a five-member bench had already heard an identical matter, a few days ago, adding that the mat­ter should also be sent to it.

The court, after hearing argu­ments of the parties, reserved its verdict for sometime. 

Later, the court suspended the ban and referred the mat­ter to a full bench for further hearing. On March 5, Pemra had imposed a ban on airing of speeches of the PTI chairman due to his provocative state­ments against the state institu­tions.

‘SECTION 144’

The Lahore High Court (LHC) was informed on Thursday that the Punjab government had lifted ban on protests, demon­strations and rallies in the pro­vincial capital. Advocate Gener­al Punjab (AGP) Shan Gul made the statement before Justice Muhammad Waheed Khan who was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lead­er Hammad Azhar challenging the ban imposed by the gov­ernment on protests, rallies and other such activities under Section 144 of the Code of the Criminal Procedure. 

The AGP submitted that the government had lifted Section 144. He further defended the imposition of Section 144 in the provincial capital and sub­mitted that yesterday was a sensitive day. At this, the court disposed of the petition for be­ing ineffective in the light of the AGP’s statement.

The Punjab Home Depart­ment on Wednesday banned all kinds of protests, demonstra­tions and rallies in the provin­cial capital for a week. The ban had been imposed under Sec­tion 144 of the Code of Crimi­nal procedure due to “overall security situation” in the wake of recent spate of terrorism and threat alerts