The Islamabad High Court has released Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan on bail for two weeks. The ARY News television channel reported this on Friday.
"Imran Khan's bail application in the case [of the Al Qadir Trust fund he owns] has been approved," the channel said in a Twitter post. It is specified that the period of application of this measure against the former prime minister will be two weeks.
Khan was taken to the courthouse under heavy security, Dawn reported Friday. The former prime minister asked a panel of judges for release from custody and pledged to appear at future hearings at the first request of the court.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court reversed the Islamabad High Court's verdict to remand the politician in custody, saying that "the manner in which the warrant for Khan's arrest at the Islamabad High Court building was executed was invalid and illegal."
Pakistani government ministers strongly protested and criticized the Supreme Court's decision.
Khan was arrested May 9 at the Islamabad High Court on an arrest warrant issued May 1. The reason was the accusation of corruption and the use of the former prime minister's Al Qadir Trust for money laundering. According to the investigation, the politician legalized about $175.5 million from a real estate firm in Britain during his premiership.
Khan's incarceration sparked mass protests in major Pakistani cities, including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Haripur, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi. Protesters committed acts of vandalism and engaged in violent clashes with law enforcement officers. Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday that at least 10 people were killed in the riots and more than 1,750 were injured. Police detained more than 1,000 supporters of the former prime minister's Justice Movement party. Due to the sharp deterioration of the situation in Pakistan, Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif announced the possibility of introducing a state of emergency in the country.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS