The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday accepted journalist Imran Riaz Khan's plea for protective bail after multiple sedition cases were registered against him.

       Several cases have been lodged against senior journalists including Khan, Arshad Sharif and Sabir Shakir for allegedly spreading hate against army and state institutions.

       Subsequently, Khan filed two petitions with the LHC through his lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq. He also posted on his Twitter account that he had been granted bail.

       Justice Tariq Nadeem and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz separately heard the petitions. The former granted the journalist protective bail of four days while the latter granted it till May 31.

       In the petitions, the journalist said that he was currently residing in Lahore.

       "The petitioner is apprehending his arrest while approaching the local District and Sessions Court of Thatha/Nawabshah for the purpose of surrendering before the court of law and seeking bail before arrest to defend the bogus, baseless allegation leveled against the petitioner and to join the investigation to prove his innocence during the course of investigation," they stated.

       They said that Khan had approached the LHC for the grant of pre-arrest protective bail for "a reasonable time prior to reaching in Thatta/Nawabshah and to save himself from any irreparable loss in terms of his arrest despite that the case is absolutely false [...]."

       They added that Khan was innocent and had committed no offence.

       Speaking to the media outside the LHC, the journalist stated that under the law, only a single FIR can be registered against a single offence. "Register one case, I will face it. Add as many sections as you want to add to it," he said.

       Khan noted that the motive behind registering cases at different police stations across the country was merely to ensure that the accused person is running around in circles.

       Senior journalists booked in sedition cases

       It had emerged on Sunday that cases were registered against Khan, Shakir and Sharif for allegedly criticising state institutions and “abetting mutiny”.

       The first information report (FIR) against Khan, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered in Thatta's Dhabeji police station under Sections 131 (incitement to mutiny), 153 (provoking to cause riot), 452 (trespassing) and 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

       The FIR said that the complainant had heard Khan talking against the army and the institutions in a "derogatory and provocative language" on social media.