An Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has ordered that PTI founder Imran Khan be produced at the next hearing in the 2023 Judicial Complex attack case, either in person or via video link, with the matter now fixed for November 5.
ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra passed the order on Monday while hearing the case registered at Ramna police station, according to Dawn and the Express Tribune. The case stems from clashes that broke out between police and PTI workers on March 18, 2023, when Khan arrived at the Federal Judicial Complex in Islamabad for a hearing in the Toshakhana case. Police allege PTI workers tore down security barriers, damaged the complex’s entrance gate and set fires, while the party has maintained that police action triggered the violence. Islamabad police booked the accused under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Along with the production order for Khan, the court took action against several other PTI leaders named in the case over repeated non-appearance. Four former office-holders were declared proclaimed offenders, while non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for two others.
| Name | Former Role | Court Action Monday |
|---|---|---|
| Farrukh Habib | Former federal minister | Declared proclaimed offender |
| Hammad Azhar | Former federal minister | Declared proclaimed offender |
| Murad Saeed | Former federal minister | Declared proclaimed offender |
| Shibli Faraz | Former senator | Declared proclaimed offender |
| Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi | Former Punjab Assembly deputy speaker | Non-bailable arrest warrant issued |
| Hassan Khan Niazi | PTI MPA | Non-bailable arrest warrant issued |
The court also directed that asset details of the four proclaimed offenders be submitted, a standard step once a court has formally declared an accused an absconder.
Khan, who has been held at Adiala Jail since August 2023, is facing dozens of cases filed since his removal from office as prime minister in April 2022, ranging from the Toshakhana references to the May 9, 2023 riots. He has repeatedly said the cases against him are politically motivated, a charge the government denies.
Monday’s order came on a day of renewed friction between Islamabad and PTI more broadly. A second round of government-opposition talks collapsed without a breakthrough over PTI’s demand for a meeting with Khan and a joint strategy on militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, even as the stock market tumbled nearly 2,000 points the same afternoon on investor unease over the standoff. PTI’s Afridi-led convoy, meanwhile, continued its march toward Kohat a day after an overnight halt in Karak, with internet services suspended in parts of the route.
Our Opinion
Court orders like Monday’s keep piling up alongside an already long list of pending cases against Imran Khan, and at some point that volume starts to raise its own question: whether the judicial system is working through a backlog or being used as one more lever in a political standoff that neither side currently has an incentive to de-escalate; the timing, landing on the same day talks broke down and markets wobbled, is a reminder that these legal and political tracks in Pakistan rarely move independently of each other, and what happens on November 5 will say as much about the state of government-PTI negotiations as it does about the Judicial Complex case itself.
