LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday suspended notices, sent by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan, in prohibited funding case.
Justice Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural picked up the petition for hearing during which Imran Khan’s lawyer argued that FIA had no jurisdiction in the case.
????ایف آئی اے کا خواب چکناچور????
لاہور ہائیکورٹ نے FIA کیطرف سے سابق وزیراعظم عمران خان کو ممنوعہ فنڈنگ کیس میں جاری کردہ نوٹس معطل کرتے ہوۓ وفاقی حکومت سے جواب طلب کرلیا، FIA سمیت دیگر فریقین کو 7 دسمبر کیلئے نوٹس جاری. pic.twitter.com/JyIQB58XhT
— Rana Yasif (@ranayasif) November 8, 2022
The petition has made interior ministry, FIA DG, deputy director and investigation officer respondents in the case.
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The petitioner said that the FIA in order to politically victimize him sent a call-up notice for Oct 31. He said that the FIA inquiry into the MCB account of the Punjab PTI was based on mala fide intentions.
The petition stated that the FIA initiated inquiry to harass PTI Chairman Imran Khan and placate his political adversaries. No institution raised objection to the opening of accounts by the PTI, the petition added.
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The petition asserted that the funds from PTI Punjab’s account were spent on party office running costs, adding that raising funds was every political party’s constitutional right.
It said the interior ministry on August 3 had notified that it was considering putting his name in the exit control list (ECL) through a tweet.
“However, FIA’s Deputy Director and the investigation officer went a step ahead of the interior ministry launched an investigation and started sending notices for the PTI chairman’s appearance before the inquiry team,” it said.
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After hearing the arguments, the LHC declared that the points raised in the petition were worth-pondering, and restrained FIA from harassing Imran Khan and summoned responses from FIA, Attorney General and other respondents.
