The Islamabad High Court  granted Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan protective bail till Thursday in a terrorism case registered against him for threatening police, judiciary and other state institutions at his Islamabad rally on Saturday.

Khan was charged on Sunday under the Anti-Terrorism Act

Earlier in the day, Khan moved the court seeking pre-arrest bail in the case.

The petition filed by his lawyers Babar Awan and Faisal Chaudhry stated that Khan was a “target of the ruling PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) for his fearless criticism, and extremely bold and blunt stance against corruption and corrupt politicians”, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“And to achieve this malicious agenda, acting in a most unfortunate and clumsy manner, a false and frivolous complaint has been registered against him by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) police at the behest of the incumbent government,” it added.

The plea further alleged that the government had decided to “cross all limits” to arrest Imran “under false accusations” and was “hell-bent to sort out the petitioner and his party at all costs”