Today, Imran will receive a summons from the JIT on the cases from May 9.
It is unclear if the PTI leader will testify before the investigating committee.
As part of its investigation into the May 9 attacks on the Lahore corps commander’s home (also known as Jinnah home) and other military institutions, a joint investigation team (JIT) has summoned PTI Chairman and former premier Imran Khan today (Tuesday).
The PTI leader, Imran Khan, is scheduled to meet with the investigation team at 4 p.m. at the Investigations Headquarters in Qila Gujjar Singh, headed by Lahore DIG Investigations Kamran Adil.
The PTI leader’s remarks regarding the violence cases including the attacks on Jinnah House and Askari Tower would be recorded by the team.
According to the sources, Imran had received the JIT summons and met with his legal team before responding.
Whether or not the PTI chairman would appear before the inquiry body was still up in the air as of the writing of this story.
Several cases were filed against PTI leaders and workers, including the PTI chief, at Sarwar Road, Shadman, Gulberg, and other police stations after the May 9 incidents were investigated by the more than a dozen Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) formed by the Punjab government.
Protesters, some of whom were said to be PTI members, attacked the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and the home of the Lahore corps commander on May 9 in an extraordinary act of destruction.
Hours earlier, on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau, paramilitary Rangers had detained Imran from the Islamabad High Court in connection with a corruption investigation involving the Al-Qadir Trust, now known as the National Crime Agency £190 million scam.
After the riots, the government began a brutal crackdown against the former ruling party’s leaders and workers.
On May 11, nevertheless, the Supreme Court stepped in to save Imran, ruling that his arrest was “illegal” and mandating that he be released.
The PTI chairman’s arrest in any case, revealed or otherwise, filed against him anywhere in the country was halted by the IHC on May 12.
In the National Crime Agency’s £190 million scandal, it also granted the PTI chief interim bail for two weeks.
The military called the events on May 9 a “dark chapter” in the country’s history and declared its intention to bring the protesters to justice under the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act, both of which are military statutes.
The NSC, the highest security body in the country, approved the move. The federal cabinet accepted the decision to try the protestors under the Army Act and the Official Secrets Act for their looting and vandalism of military facilities.
Local and international rights groups, as well as members of the ruling coalition, all voiced strong opposition to the decision, citing concerns that it would undermine democracy.
Concerns were also raised by Amnesty International, which stated that “using military courts to try civilians is a clear violation of international law” in regards to the decision to try the May 9 rioters under the army act.
The PTI argued that convicting civilians in military courts was a “clear violation” of constitutional principles of due process and fair trial, and it subsequently filed a petition with the Supreme Court to that effect.
“Such trials are highly deprecated internationally and widely considered to falling short of providing fair trial,” the petition read.
Several members of the PTI legislature, including Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar, and Maleeka Bokhari, have broken ties with the party since their arrests and re-arrests on May 9.
A petition seeking a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to undertake a “fair probe” into the events of May 9 was recently argued before the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Counsel for petitioner Afzal Pahat stated before Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan that PTI protests started off peacefully but escalated into a law and order crisis.
He insisted that thugs had desecrated monuments, attacked military facilities, and set state buildings on fire.
He claimed that the PTI’s goal had never been to destabilise law and order, and he questioned how party members could be responsible for torching public buildings.
He asked the judge to order the relevant parties to form a JIT and undertake an impartial investigation into what happened on May 9.
The legal representative informed the judge that the Supreme Court had not yet made a decision on the case.
Attorney for the petitioner responded that no court was currently hearing this case.
The Chief Justice was perplexed as to how the LHC might weigh in on the case before him.
