Imran Khan taken into custody on IHC premises in Al-Qadir Trust case

ISLAMABAD : A team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), with the help of Rangers, on Tuesday took former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan into custody in the Al-Qadir Trust case. 

Saifullah Niazi, a cousin of Imran Khan, said the PTI chief had been arrested on the premises of the Islamabad High Court where he appeared in two cases. He was shifted to the NAB Rawalpindi office. The NAB team has been assisted by the Pakistan Rangers personnel. 

IG Islamabad in a tweet said Imran had been arrested in Al-Qadir Trust case.

According to a report, Bushra Bibi has challenged the NAB inquiry into the case in the IHC which has summoned record. 

PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry also confirmed the arrest of Imran Khan. 

Reacting to it, PTI Vice President Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that the IHC had been “occupied by the Rangers” and “lawyers are being subjected to torture”. “Imran Khan’s car had been surrounded,” he added. 

In another tweet, Fawad Chaudhry said Imran Khan had been abducted from court premises.

 IHC springs into action – 

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Amir Farooq sprang into action and summoned the IGP and the Secretary Interior within 15 minutes in court. He said it should be clear which case Imran Khan was involved in and why he had been arrested. He said the act was patently wrong. 

He said he would not hesitate to summon Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif if the IGP and the Secretary Interior would not appear in court. He further said he could take action against the prime minister and other ministers too. 

– Al-Qadir Trust case – 

Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and their close aides Zulfiqar Bukhari and Babar Awan are allegedly involved in the Al-Qadir University Project Trust. Documents reveal that Mr Khan, Bushra Bibi, Mr Bukhari and Mr Awan formed the trust to set up ‘Al-Qadir University’ for imparting ‘quality education’ in Jhelum’s Sohawa tehsil.

The office address of the trust has been mentioned as “Bani Gala House, Islamabad”. 

Later, documents say, the trustees signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private company involved in real estate business to receive donations from the latter. The company allotted land measuring 458 kanal, 4 marla, 58 square feet to the trust. Fulfilling paper formalities, Bushra Bibi signed the MoU effective from March 2019.