Pakistan court grants Imran Khan bail in terrorism cases

Pakistan’s parliament is to meet in a special joint session on Wednesday to “take important decisions”

A Pakistani court on March 21, 2023 granted former Prime Minister Imran Khan a weeklong bail in two new cases in which he faces terrorism charges, officials said. The ruling gave the embattled ousted premier and now popular Opposition leader another brief reprieve from arrest.

Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in Parliament last April, the 70-year-old former cricket player turned Islamist politician has become embroiled in a series of legal cases against him, including on terrorism charges and graft while in office.

Pakistan’s parliament is to meet in a special joint session on Wednesday to “take important decisions” to enforce the state’s authority, media reported, in the midst of prolonged anti-government defiance by Mr. Khan.

The office of the Speaker of Parliament, in calling Wednesday’s joint session, did not give a reason but the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said the ruling coalition had called for Parliament to “take important decisions” to ensure the writ of the state was enforced.

The APP, reporting on a meeting attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Cabinet, cited the participants as saying Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not a political party but “rather a gang of militants”, and its “enmity against the state” could not be tolerated.

Mr. Khan's standoff with the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, has turned increasingly violent in recent days.

In the latest terrorism cases, Mr. Khan is accused of inciting people to violence when he travelled to Islamabad last Saturday to face indictment in a graft case. His followers clashed with police outside the court and Mr. Khan never appeared before the judge.