Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will appear before the Lahore High Court on Friday to assure the Judiciary that he would appear before a judge in a corruption case on Saturday.
Khan is an accused in the Toshakhana case. He has skipped several hearings so far. The Islamabad court hearing the case issued a non-bailable warrant for his arrest on Monday but police has not been able to arrest as it fought pitched battles with several hundreds of Khan's supporters around his residence in Lahore for two days.
On Tuesday, Lahore's Zaman Park area turned into a battlezone as a large contingent of police arrived at Khan's house to arrest him. However, hundrends of supporters from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party clashed with the police that led to tear gas shelling and use of water cannon. Paramilitary Rangers personnel in armoured vehicles and a helicopter was also deployed as smoke emanated from inside Khan's house from shells that landed inside.
While Khan is resisting arrest, his party PTI has said he would go to Lahore High Court and to Islamabad court tomorrow.
"Imran Khan will come to the Lahore High Court himself and assure the judge that he is ready to go to the Islamabad court," said PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry to media on Friday, adding that "an undertaking has also been given to the court".
The Toshakhana case against Imran Khan
In all, Khan has at least 81 cases against him. The current case relates to the Toshakhana case.
The "Toshakhana" is a department that is in charge of valuable gifts received by government officials. It's alleged Khan did not disclose gifts presented to Toshakhana and that there were irregularities in sale of some of these gifts.
Additional District and Sessions Judge in Islamabad Zafar Iqbal had re-issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Khan on February 28 and directed the capital city police to bring him to court by March 18.
While hearing the case, the judge remarked that Khan should surrender unconditionally before seeking any favour from the court. Khan has skipped several hearings in the case.
Iqbal on Monday re-issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Khan and directed the police to bring him to court by March 18.
However, when the police reached Khan's Zaman Park residence in Lahore to arrest him on Tuesday, they were met with resistance, leading to two-day pitched battles between PTI supporters and law enforcement agencies. The clashes ultimately subsided after the courts intervened on Wednesday.
Ahead of the hearing in LHC on Friday, Chaudhry tweeted that both parties had "agreed to resolve the issues" and the agreed solution will be presented in court.
(With PTI inputs)
