Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan said he was delayed in Islamabad for hours by security officials after being granted bail
Military rules out martial law, says it stands with democracyISLAMABAD, May 12 - A Pakistani court ordered former Prime Minister Imran Khan's release on bail for two weeks, his lawyer said on Friday, after hisKhan departed the court premises, headed towards his hometown Lahore, amidst high security. He had remained inside for hours after being granted bail, saying he was not being allowed to leave by security officials.
The arrest, which the Supreme Court ruled "invalid and unlawful" a day earlier, has fuelled instability in the nation of 220 million at a time ofKhan welcomed the court's order and said the judiciary was Pakistan's only protection against the "law of the jungle". "I must say I expected this from our judiciary, because the only hope now left – the only thin line between a banana republic and a democracy is the judiciary," he told journalists inside the court premises.
Khan added, in answer to questions, that he did not believe the country's security agencies were against him, but he suggested that the position of army chief was all-powerful. "One man in this country decides whatever and it happens, it's one man. It's not the security agencies, it's one man – the army chief," he said, without naming him.Khan's critics once accused him of being manoeuvred into power in 2018 by the powerful military - a charge both sides denied. But he later fell out with the generals, accusing them of plotting his removal last year. He has since been a vocal critic of current army chief General Asim Munir.
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