Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), to produce former prime minister Imran Khan within an hour. This comes after the agency arrested Khan without permission from the court’s registrar, an act that the Supreme Court deemed “contempt of court”. The directive was issued by a three-member bench which heard Khan’s plea against his arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case on Tuesday.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, questioned how any individual could be arrested from court premises, stating that the NAB’s actions had undermined the dignity of the court. The court directed the NAB to produce Khan by 4:30pm (local time) when the court would reconvene.
The Supreme Court observed that the agency had committed “contempt of court” by entering the court premises and arresting Khan without permission from the court’s registrar. The top judge also noted that court staffers had been subjected to abuse during the incident.
The court has previously taken action against lawyers for vandalism inside the court, and questioned why an individual who had surrendered to the court was subsequently arrested.
