Former Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry runs back into court to avoid arrest, gets protection

In dramatic scenes at the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, former Pakistan Minister Fawad Chaudhry, while leaving the court premises after getting bail in a case, got out of his car and ran back inside into the courtroom after seeing security personnel heading towards him, media reports said.

The high court subsequently approved the senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader's two-day protective bail in all cases and barred authorities from arresting him from within the limits of the federal capital till May 17, local media reported.

The former Information Minister, after securing bail from IHC, had just sat in his car when he saw Anti-Terrorist Squad personnel moving towards him, got out and ran back in.

Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb heard the PTI leader's petition seeking protective bail in all cases.

The court had sought details of the case from Advocate General Jahangir Jadoon, who informed it that two cases were registered against the PTI leader.

It then accepted Chaudhry's bail petition and ordered the authorities concerned to send a copy of the verdict to the Islamabad police chief via a "special messenger".

Earlier in the day, the court had declared the arrest of PTI leaders Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari and Senator Falak Naz under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) as "illegal" and ordered their release.

As the Advocate General argued that a copy of the court's order was not given to the IG office and law officers and the biometric verification of the PTI leader was also not done on the petition, the judge rebuked him by saying that he wasn't the judge and it was the court's authority to see whether the biometrics had been done.