Pakistan court sends Imran on judicial remand

An accountability court in Pakistan yesterday turned down the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) request for an extension of former prime minister Imran Khan's physical remand, and instead sent him on judicial remand in a corruption case. Accountability Judge Mohammad Bashir issued the directives while conducting the hearing at Adiala Jail. The development comes a day after a NAB team visited Imran at the jail and interrogated him for a couple of hours in the case. The case alleges that the ex-premier and his wife, Bushra Bibi, obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd for legalising Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government. Imran was initially arrested in the case earlier this year from the premises of the Islamabad High Court but was later released after the Supreme Court declared the arrest unlawful. On November 14, the PTI chief, who is already imprisoned in Adiala Jail in the cipher case, was again arrested by the NAB in the Al-Qadir Trust case. He was then handed over to the watchdog on physical remand.