Roads leading to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence were blocked as the deadline given by the Punjab police to hand over “terrorists” ended at 2:00pm today.
On Wednesday, the former PM said that police had surrounded his house and that he expected to be arrested soon.
“Probably my last tweet before my next arrest,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
Videos at the time showed that roads leading to his house were blocked by the Punjab police.
However, later, Punjab Caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir said the police will not arrest anyone at Imran’s Zaman Park residence before 2pm tomorrow (Thursday).
Meanwhile, in his address, Imran said the government alleged that 40 terrorists were taking refuge at his residence.
“Please do come here, but in a civilised manner and do not attempt to storm my residence,” Imran said, adding if the police came with a search warrant to carry out an operation at his residence, he would not show any resistance.
However, he believed the government was creating grounds to attack his home.
On reports of PTI leaders leaving his party, he averred that if ‘someone’ believes that this strategy would work, they should look at this while pointing towards a sheet in which it was depicted that 70 percent of the Pakistanis supported the PTI Chairman.
“No one could write off the party that enjoys 70 percent popularity,” he added. He accused the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of creating a wedge between his party and the army.
On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court extended its orders against the PTI chairman’s arrest in further cases till May 31.
A single bench of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the petition filed by Imran regarding pre-arrest bail and details of cases registered against him and barred the authorities from arresting him till May 31.
Imran’s lawyer, Barrister Gohar represented him in the court while Additional Attorney General Munawar Dugal, Advocate General Islamabad Jahangir Jadoon also appeared before the court.
The federal government represented by the additional attorney general for Pakistan, the advocate general for Pakistan and the state counsel requested the court to grant more time to provide details of cases against the PTI chief.
On the other hand, the PTI chairman also submitted an application seeking exemption from his personal appearance before the court for one day.
Approving their requests, the IHC bench deferred the hearing of the matter till May 31.
