Islamabad court rejects Imran's plea seeking suspension of arrest warrants in Toshakhana case.

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Thursday rejected PTI chairman Imran Khan's plea seeking the suspension of non-bailable arrest warrants issued for the ex-premier in the Toshakhana case.

Announcing the verdict which was reserved earlier today, Additional District and Sessions (ADSJ) Judge Zafar Iqbal said the warrants could not be suspended on the basis of an undertaking.

He passed the order while hearing the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) reference seeking criminal proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts.

The written order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said it was 'quite obvious from the record that the applicant has never appeared in the court on any date of hearing and his personal appearance has been exempted on four occasions'.

It further said that many people had been injured and vehicles had been damaged in executing the arrest warrant and the PTI chief had 'challenged the dignity and writ of the state'.

'Brutal force has been used in obstruction of police officials for discharge of their duty and after creating such [a] state of affairs, the applicant may not claim suspension of the warrant [...],' the order said.

It further said: 'Keeping in view [the] law and order situation created by the applicant, he has lost some of the normal rights granted by procedural as well as substantive laws and he has to actually surrender before the court due to his defiance of [the] court process. Such eventuality is never appreciated by the court and it is regarded as willful default.'

The order said that law was equal for the powerful and weak segments of society and 'it is not a fun (sic) to tender such an undertaking after causing such a great loss to the public exchequer as well as damage to persons and property'.

The order said a 'poor nation' had spent millions of rupees for executing the warrant due to Imran's conduct. It ended by saying that the application was 'not justified by law as well as fact' and was hereby rejected.

The sessions court was set to indict Imran in the reference on Feb 28, but his lawyer had requested the judge that he be exempted from the hearing because he had to appear in several other courts. His indictment was deferred multiple times before.

The judge had subsequently issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Imran and instructed the police to present him in court by March 7. The PTI chief managed to dodge the arrest and later approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the cancellation of the warrants.

The IHC, while granting some relief to Imran, had told him to appear in the sessions court by March 13, but the former prime minister once again skipped the hearing. Resultantly, ADSJ Iqbal had on Monday re-issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Imran and directed the police to bring him to court by March 18.

However, when the police reached Imran's Zaman Park residence in Lahore to arrest him on Tuesday, they were met with resistance, leading to two-day...