The charges, in some nine cases, include sedition, attempted murder, and vandalism of judicial complex.
Accepting Imran’s request for an exemption today, the court said Imran will have his interim bail cancelled if he chooses to remain absent from the court.
At this, his counsel Salman Safdar assured the court that the PTI chief will be in the courtroom ‘even if he has to do so in an ambulance’.
Imran is facing a slew of cases over vandalism at Federal Judicial Complex by his party workers in late March.
Several police personnel were injured and properties damaged as the followers of the former PM engaged in a physical scuffle with law enforcers.
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The PTI chief maintains that he has life threats and faced a similar situation when appearing for a hearing at the complex.
A day earlier, the former premier apprised the Lahore High Court about an assassination effort being at work against him.
Imran told Justice Ali Baqar Najafi he had earlier revealed about an assassination attempt, and ‘we saw what happened in Wazirabad’, followed by a second attempt at the judicial complex. He maintained, a third plan is afoot. He went on to add that a top intelligence officer was “behind the whole game”.
But the court turned down the ex-premier’s pleas for interim relief and for restraining authorities from registering new first information reports (FIRs) against him.
The bench also sought a report by May 8 of the ongoing probe to determine which FIRs filed against the PTI chief require his arrest, as well as other cases.
During the LHC hearing, Judge Najafi remarked that the court will look into the matter of the PTI chief’s security whenever a plea is filed in this regard.