ISLAMABAD: Former PM Imran Khan will appear before the Islamabad High Court today (Wednesday) amidst tight security.
As per the security orders issued by the federal government earlier today, only lawyers on the cause list will be allowed to enter the high court after security checks, and the court has been secured by barbed wire.
Whereas SSP Operations Jameel Zafar has been assigned the first responsibility of ensuring security outside the high court, three superintendents of police (SP), and 9 additional and deputy SPs are providing their services within the court’s vicinity.
Additionally, at least a thousand junior rank officers and officials have been posted across the IHC, whereas the Security Division is responsible for providing security inside the court premises.
The security order also said that Safe City cameras will be used to surveil the area and that every one officers and personnel posted on the ground will be unarmed barring these that have been assigned rooftop duties.
Moreover, 500 short-range and a further 500 long-range armored vehicles have also been stationed carrying tear gas shells. Concurrently, at least 3,000 shells and police vehicles are stationed in police lines.
Tensions nonetheless remained high within the IHC after the deposed premier Imran Khan on Tuesday (yesterday) responded to a show-cause notice issued to him by the court in a contempt case and provided to “take back” the controversial remarks he had made against district and sessions judge Zeba Chaudhry during a PTI rally at F-9 Park in Islamabad earlier this month.
The PTI chief, in a provisional reply, had said that due to “serious misunderstanding and misconception” he had misunderstood that Judge Zeba was not a judicial officer however an executive magistrate performing executive functions on the federal government’s directions.
The reply, submitted by means of Imran’s counsel Hamid Khan, had regretted {that a} improper impression was taken from the PTI chief’s speech that he had threatened the female judge for approving PTI leader Shahbaz Gill’s physical remand.
“Even in any other case, word ‘action’ used in the speech did not denote any ‘illegal/unlawful action’ against any person rather it was used for ‘legal’ and ‘lawful motion’ which is right of every citizen of Pakistan,” the reply had said.
