Imran granted protective bail, set to appear in court today.

ISLAMAABAD -- The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday granted interim protective bail to PTI Chairman Imran Khan in nine cases hours after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) restrained the police from arresting him as he is scheduled to appear before a lower court in the federal capital in the Toshakhana case on Saturday (today).

The former prime minister reached the LHC with hundreds of his charged party workers at around 6:30pm, almost one-hour late to the time when he was directed to appear for the hearing of his bail petitions.

The LHC administration permitted the bulletproof vehicle of Imran Khan to enter the court premises amid strict security arrangements.

Initially, the PTI chief appeared before a two-judge bench comprising Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh and Justice Farooq Haider, which was specially constituted by the chief justice to hear his bail petitions in cases, including an offence under Section 7 of ATA.

At the outset of hearing in a packed courtroom, Azhar Siddique, the counsel for Mr Khan, told the bench that at least six cases had been registered against his client in Islamabad and three in Lahore.

He said the government had registered many other cases against the petitioner. He asked the court to grant a 'blanket protective bail' to Mr Khan since he had no knowledge of all the cases registered against him.

Justice Sheikh, however, made it clear that the court could only grant bail in the cases wherein petitions had been filed by Mr Khan.

With the court permission, the former PM also spoke and said the government was implicating him in numerous cases. He said the government was set to make a century of cases against him as at least 94 FIRs had already been lodged against him so far.

Mr Khan said his residence was attacked by the police as if it was the house of a terrorist.

'I want to thank this court for saving me from the attack,' he said to the judge.

Justice Sheikh observed that the issue of the execution of the arrest warrants had been mishandled by Imran Khan.

He said law had a solution to all issues.

'You just need to follow the system,' the judge advised Mr Khan.

The PTI chief said he survived a murder attack and still had security threats.

Justifying his act of skipping hearings in the Toshakhana case, he said the judicial complex that housed the trial court had been bombed in the past. He said appearing in that court would be a 'death trap'.

The bench granted the protective bail to Mr Khan in five cases of Islamabad...