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Imran Khan to go to Lahore court seeking halt of arrest warrant | Imran Khan News


DEVELOPING STORY,

The former prime minister to march to the high court with hundreds of his supporters as a tense calm prevails in the city.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will attend a court in the eastern city of Lahore to support his plea seeking to halt an arrest warrant against him, according to a senior aide.

Khan would go to the Lahore High Court on Friday to “support his plea against his arrest warrant and police action”, the aide, Fawad Chaudhry, said.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from outside Khan’s home in Lahore, said the former prime minister would march to the court with hundreds of his supporters.

“Four new cases have been registered here in Lahore against Imran Khan. And that is pertaining to the resistance that his supporters showed towards the police when they came to arrest him,” Hyder said.

Khan’s decision to visit the court came shortly after it extended a ban on police action around his Zaman Park residence in the city till 3pm (10:00 GMT) on Friday.

Meanwhile, a tense calm prevails in the neighbourhood as hundreds of Khan’s supporters, some armed with batons and iron rods, continue to barricade his home.

Pakistan Imran Khan
Khan’s supporters gather with sticks near his Zaman Park residence in Lahore [K M Chaudhry/AP]

Earlier this week, the area was the site of pitched battles between Khan’s supporters and the security forces who wanted to arrest him in an alleged corruption case.

Khan is accused of selling state gifts given to him when he was the prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The 70-year-old politician denies the charges.

Khan’s aide Chadhury also said their Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has filed a plea on Friday at the Islamabad High Court to suspend the arrest warrant in the state gifts case. The PTI petition came a day after a lower court in the national capital rejected a similar request made by the party.

Khan is due to appear in Islamabad court on Saturday. He told Al Jazeera on Thursday he will.

The former cricket star also told Al Jazeera at least 85 cases have been filed against him after he was removed from office in a parliamentary vote in April last year.

Since then, he has been holding public rallies to demand immediate national elections. He was shot and wounded at one of those rallies in November.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Khan said the people who want to arrest him are the same people who attempted to assassinate him.

“I believe the same people now trying to put me in jail were responsible for the attempt on my life,” he said, without giving any names.



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