Former Pakistan prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith expressed relief after Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday declared the cricketer-turned politician’s arrest illegal and ordered his immediate release. Reacting to the top court’s decision, Goldsmith tweeted, “Finally sense has prevailed”.
Jemima Goldsmith is a British scriptwriter, and television, and film producer. Goldsmith and Imran Khan married in 1995 and got divorced in 2004. Imran and Jemima have two children. First Suleman Isa was born in 1996 and Qasim in 1999.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, was hearing the case, Geo News reported. Terming his arrest ‘illegal’, the Supreme Court ordered his immediate release. The top court also observed that whatever the Islamabad High Court decides, Imran will have to abide by it, Dawn reported.
During the hearing, Imran’s lawyer argued that his arrest was made without an investigation officer and accused National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of committing contempt of court. The Chief Justice of Pakistan stressed the importance of courts being accessible to everyone and the individuals should feel safe to approach them.
As per the Dawn report, Imran Khan’s lawyer said the arrest warrant dated May 1 was not in accordance with the law and questioned why NAB did not try to arrest him for eight days. The Advocate General stated that NAB is an independent institution and had requested Rangers to be present at the scene but not carry out the arrest. Justice Minallah, expressing concern about NAB’s actions, accused them of “political engineering” and “contributing to the country’s destruction”.
Notably, the PTI had filed a petition in the country's Supreme Court a day earlier challenging the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision calling party chief Imran Khan’s arrest by the NAB “legal”. Initially, the plea was returned to the PTI as the registrar's office attached objections to the plea, as per a Geo News report. The registrar's office stated that the PTI chief had not approached the relevant forum and that he could file an intra-court appeal. It also mentioned that the petition did not have the signatures of the PTI chief.