ISLAMABAD—On Wednesday, a sessions court turned down Imran Khan’s request to be found not guilty of intimidating a female judge.
The decision came from civil judge Muhammad Mureed Abbas, who was in charge of the case hearing where prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi finished his arguments.
At the last meeting, Salman Safdar, the lawyer for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief, finished making his case.
In August 2022, the former prime minister was arrested on terrorism charges at the Margalla police station in the federal capital for what he said at a rally in F9 Park. There, he warned Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and police high-ups that bad things would happen because they were “biased” against his party.
Imran said that Judge Zeba knew that PTI leader Shahbaz Gill was being tortured while he was in jail, but he still wouldn’t let him out on bail.
He also said he would punish the judge, the inspector general of police (IGP), and the deputy inspector general of police (DIG) of Islamabad.
Magistrate Ali Javed, who made the complaint, opened the case.
It’s important to note that the FIR was filed hours before another Islamabad police station got a written report from a resident of G-11/2 that they should file a case against the former premier for making hate speeches and calling for rebellion against the army, police, and the courts.
But after going to an Islamabad lower court to apologize to Judge Zeba in person last year, Imran wrote an affidavit to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) promising not to do anything else that would make the judges look bad.
When Imran went to the court to see Judge Zeba, she wasn’t there.
In the statement, Imran said he “would be ready to say sorry” to the female judge if she thought he had “crossed a red line.”
Decisions made before
After Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had differences, the IHC dropped the terrorism charges against Imran. In December 2022, the case was moved from an anti-terrorism court to a sessions court.
In the rulings, Justice Kayani didn’t agree with Justice Sattar’s “benefit of the doubt” point of view because Justice Sattar was “pleased with Imran Khan’s apology.” At that time, Justice Kayani said that since the accused wasn’t charged, it would look like he was “pardoned.”
In April of this year, a district and sessions court in Islamabad issued a bailable order for the PTI chief in this case after his lawyer said he could not show up because of a bullet injury that made it impossible for him to walk.
