Justice Safdar Saleem Shahid of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday proposed to the chief justice that a larger bench should decide a petition filed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan against arrest in cases registered on or after May 9, when he was arrested from the premises of the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Qadir Trust case. The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, named the Punjab inspector general and the state through the Punjab advocate general as respondents. The plea called on the court to direct the Punjab inspector general to provide a fresh report regarding the registration of “undisclosed/new FIRs” in Lahore on or after May 9. It also prayed the court to give Imran “protection of law” and to bar the respondents from arresting the PTI chief in any new criminal case registered on or subsequent to May 9 without the court’s prior permission.
At the outset of the hearing today, Justice Shahid inquired about the PTI chief’s whereabouts. His lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, informed the court that his client did not have protective bail. He said that if the court desired, his client could be presented after 11am. However, the government lawyer opposed this and said that Imran’s plea was inadmissible. He also remarked that the PTI chief was seeking protective bail without appearing before the court. Barrister Safdar responded by saying that his client was not seeking protective bail and asked for the case to be sent to a larger bench. The court subsequently reserved its verdict.
Source: aljazeera.com/news
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
