Pak former PM Imran Khan granted bail by Islamabad High Court

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was granted bail by Islamabad High Court on Friday, after his arrest on graft charges this week sparked deadly clashes before being declared illegal.

Khan was manhandled into detention by paramilitary troops at the court on Tuesday, but the Supreme Court later declared the arrest unlawful and demanded the process be "backtracked".

On Friday, after arriving back at Islamabad High Court in a secure convoy and walking into the building flanked by dozens of police and paramilitaries, he was granted bail.


"The court has granted Imran Khan a two weeks interim bail and has directed the authorities not to arrest him in the [graft] case," Khan's lawyer Khawaja Harris told reporters afterwards.

But the legal saga seems far from over. The interior minister has pledged to re-arrest Khan, who has become tangled in a slew of legal cases -a frequent hazard for opposition figures in Pakistan - since he was ousted from power last April and launched a campaign of defiance against the military.