PTI Chairman urges investigators to facilitate him at his Zaman Park residence n Says a new King's party will be constituted after PTI’s systematic break n Sends Rs10b defamation notice to health minister over false medical report.

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD     -   Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) Chairman Im­ran Khan Tuesday sub­mitted bail bonds in four different cases, re­lated to May-9 vandal­ism and hiding facts in connection with the death of Zille Shah.

Earlier, the PTI Chair­man Imran Khan along with his counsel ap­peared before Anti-Ter­rorism Court (ATC) Judge Ijaz Ahmad But­tar for furnishing sure­ty bonds of Rs 100,000 each in three cases lodged for attacking Jin­nah House (the corps commander house in Lahore), Askari Tow­er and Shadman Police Station. The guaran­tor, Advocate Muham­mad Habib, submitted surety bonds on behalf of the PTI chairman, which were accordingly accepted by the court.

On May 19, the court had granted the interim bail till June 2 to the PTI Chairman Imran Khan in three cases registered by Sarwar Road police, Gul­berg police and Shadman Town police and ordered him to furnish sure­ty bonds of Rs 100,000 each in the cases.

The other day, the court rejected the bail bonds of Imran Khan in the cases after the guarantor showed re­luctance to take re­sponsibility for the ap­pearance of the PTI chairman in the trial proceedings.

Meanwhile, the PTI chairman also visited the Lahore High Court (LHC) and signed the documents before dep­uty registrar judicial against pre-arrest inter­im bail granted to him in case of hiding facts about the death of Ali Bilal alias Zille Shah, a PTI worker. A guarantor, Shabir Hussain, submitted sure­ty bonds on behalf of the PTI chairman. Justice Anwaar-ul-Haq Pannun had granted the interim bail to Imran Khan till June 2 in the case and ordered him to furnish surety bonds of Rs 100,000 for availing the re­lief. Sarwar Road Police had reg­istered a case against PTI lead­ers over hiding facts in Ali Bilal alias Zille Shah’s death case.

‘Joint Investigation Team’

PTI leader Imran Khan Tues­day failed to appear before a joint investigation team (JIT) probing May 9 vandalism at the Lahore Corps Command­er’s House, also called Jinnah House, and requested that he be facilitated at is Zaman Park res­idence in Lahore. The JIT had summoned the former prime minister to join the probe on Tuesday into vandalism at Jin­nah House on Tuesday.

The summons notice issued by Lahore DIG (investigation) Kamran Adil, who is heading the JIT, stated: “Imran Khan is required to attend the office of the DIG Investigation to join the investigation proceedings en­trusted to the JTI formed by the Punjab government.”

He was called for question­ing in a case registered with the Sarwar Road police station, in which he is nominated for al­legedly abetting the attackers who ransacked and set fire to Jinnah House when he was in prison. However, Imran did not join the investigation proceed­ings and instead submitted his reply to the notice through his lawyers, Advocates Ali Ijaz But­tar and Naeem Haider Panjhuta.

In his reply, the PTI chief said he received the notice on Mon­day “with very limited time to respond and reply”. He further stated that he was facing “secu­rity threats”, which were already in the JIT’s knowledge, and that he was also due to appear be­fore an anti-terrorism court and the Lahore Court today in con­nection with bail bonds.

Moreover, he said attending court on important hearing was also mandatory. “Taking into ac­count the extreme threat, se­curity concerns, huge cost im­plication to state and myself, I will appreciate if I am facilitat­ed at Zaman Park residence on any date/time of your conve­nience,” the reply read. Report­edly, JIT refused to accept Imran Khan’s written reply in connec­tion with the May 9 riots inves­tigation. PTI chairman and oth­er party leaders were accused of inciting workers to violence which led to attacks on defence and public installations in many parts of the country during the three-day-long protests.

Also, PTI Chairman Imran Khan Tuesday skipped hearing before a local court of Islamabad in a case pertaining to rioting and vandalising public proper­ty during his party’s march. Civ­il Judge Ahtisham Alam heard the case against Irran Khan and other accused registered by the Golra Police Station.

Imran Khan’s counsel Bar­rister Gohar Ali requested the grant his client a one-time ex­emption from appearance as he could not attend the proceed­ings due to security issues.

The court accepted the re­quest and extended Imran Khan’s interim bail till June 13. However, it issued bailable ar­rest warrants of the co-accused due to non-appearance.

‘I AM READY FOR TALKS’

Imran Khan Tuesday claimed that judges of the superior ju­diciary were also receiving calls from the unknown numbers to put them under pressure in the wake of serious violations of hu­man rights. 

“I am aware that my superi­or judiciary is under immense pressure because judges too are receiving phone calls from unknown numbers and being threatened.”, he said in a tele­vised address to the party sup­porters from his Zaman Park residence here. 

Imran Khan stated that he was also aware that all institutions of the country were being used to systematically break the PTI. He alleged that the government had inserted Gullu Butts among police who were under pres­sure by unknown people and were being forced into doing what they were doing. He said that FIA closed the ‘open and shut money laundering case’ against Shehbaz Sharif and now it’s only task was to find the cas­es against PTI leaders.

The PTI chairman alleged that since the resignation of the for­mer chairman of NAB, the only task of the accountability bu­reau was to use it to eliminate the PTI. “I said earlier that I am ready for talks, if only you ex­plain to me what is the roadmap and where we want to go. The road map so far I understand is that a new King’s Party will be constituted and then the seats of PML-N and PPP will be divid­ed because the votes of PML-N and PPP are almost diminished to form a coalition government,” he observed. 

Talking about the May 9 riots, Imran Khan stated that the reac­tion was natural to protest out­side military installations giv­en the way he was abducted by the army. He alleged that wom­en were being traced through geo-fencing, as an innocent fe­male lawyer was picked up at 3 o’clock in the morning. 

“It is for the first — going by the reports we received from jails — that the majority of po­lice are unhappy with what they are being made to do. The ma­jority of police believe that cru­elty is being inflicted,” he added.

He said the cabal of crooks had unleashed a reign of ter­ror. He said nobody could have imagined of stooping to this lev­el in Pakistan’s politics, as PTI’s workers were not only being subjected to worst torture but were threatened that women from their house would be tak­en away. The PTI chairman said that the fascist government crossed all limits of barbarism and cruelty, as there was no pri­or example of exerting this kind of pressure on any political par­ty in the country.

Imran Khan said that ten thousand people, workers and supporters of ours were thrown in jail and many of them, in­cluding party leaders, were tor­tured due to continuing to stand with the party. He highlight­ed that party leaders were be­ing tortured just because they gave statements that “they were standing with the party”.