A Pakistan court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday in connection with alleged threats made to a woman judge.
The hearing was presided over by Islamabad-based judicial magistrate Malik Aman, who denied Khan's counsel's request for an exemption from an in-person appearance, news agency PTI reported.
According to the report, the judicial magistrate also denied Khan's lawyer's plea to allow the former prime minister to appear on March 30 after the prosecution lawyer objected, asserting that he should have appeared by the deadline of the arrest warrants.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader was issued non-bailable arrest warrants by the judge, who also ordered the authorities to bring him before the court on April 18.
Khan's non-bailable arrest warrant was changed into a bailable warrant at the court's recent hearing on March 24. He was supposed to appear by March 29, but he did not show up.
Prior to that, on March 13, Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim issued non-bailable arrest warrants for him in the case.
The Woman Judge Threat Case:
The case is based on Khan's August 2017 speech in which he used threatening language against Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry and Islamabad police officials.
Khan was charged with violating various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). In addition, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) charged him with contempt of court. The terrorism charges were later dropped.
A similar case, however, is pending before the sessions court following the registration of a first information report (FIR) against him for threatening the judge.
Following his ouster from power in April of last year, the former prime minister has faced dozens of cases filed against him in various cities. So far, he has not been arrested in any case.
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