A special court in Islamabad rejected on Thursday the post-arrest bail pleas of ousted premier Imran Khan and former federal minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
The court constituted under the Official Secrets Act had earlier reserved its decision on this matter while granting pre-arrest bail to former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) general secretary Asad Umar.
During the hearing, Imran’s counsel maintained that no other leader has been subjected to political victimization to the extent the PTI chairperson is facing. There are 180 cases lodged against him, with over 140 registered before his arrest, said the council.
The defence argued that the entire cabinet would have to be implicated as this matter could not be assigned to one individual while referring to meetings held by the National Security Council during which the cipher was discussed.
After the completion of arguments by the counsels, the court reserved its verdict for a short while.
Later, the court rejected both bail pleas.
