Pakistan's ex-Premier Khan granted 2-week bail in murder case

KARACHI, Pakistan

A Pakistani court on Thursday granted a two-week protective bail to the country's former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a murder case, a court record said.

A two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court granted bail to Khan in a case lodged against him on Wednesday for the murder of a lawyer.

The slain lawyer had moved the Balochistan High Court against the ex-prime minister, seeking registration of a high treason case.

The lawyer from southwestern Balochistan province was gunned down by unknown attackers in the provincial capital Quetta on Tuesday.

The government and Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party accused each other of being involved in the murder.

However, the slain lawyer's son nominated Khan as an accused in the case.

Journalist murder case

The mother of a slain journalist on Thursday requested the Supreme Court to include Khan and four others in the ongoing investigations into her son's murder.

Arshad Sharif, a well-known journalist and TV host, was killed by police in October last year in the suburbs of Kenya's capital Nairobi.

Sharif, a staunch supporter of Khan, had flown to the United Arab Emirates and subsequently Nairobi after over a dozen cases were filed against him in Pakistan.

In an application, Sharif's mother has named Khan, PTI leaders and former ministers Faisal Vawda and Murad Saeed, a PTI-leaning journalist Imran Riaz Khan who has been missing for weeks, the head of local broadcaster ARY News, Salman Iqbal, as those needed to join the probe.

Khan, 70, who was ousted from power through a no-trust vote in April last year, has been facing a slew of cases, mostly registered after his ouster.