The Supreme Court in the Pakistani capital Islamabad decided to release on bail former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday, as defectors from his party announced the formation of a new party.
Today's court decision prevented Pakistan Insaf Party leader Imran Khan from being imprisoned for 14 days on charges of incitement to murder.
Khan appeared today before three different courts in the capital, Islamabad, and was granted bail in several other cases.
Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that Khan would appear before the National Accountability Board, the Islamabad High Court and another court competent to pursue terrorism cases.
Imran Khan predicted in a speech broadcast by his Insaf Party on Wednesday night that he would be arrested on recent charges of inciting followers of his party to kill a lawyer in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan.
He also explicitly accused the military and its intelligence service of trying to destroy his political party and said he had "no doubt" that he would face military trial and be imprisoned.
The former Pakistani prime minister was arrested on May 3 and detained for 150 days, sparking violent protests from his supporters, and Khan says he faces nearly <> cases and denies any wrongdoing.
Khan, 70, who became prime minister in 2018, has been locked in a standoff with the country's powerful military since he was ousted in a no-confidence vote last year.
New party
Meanwhile, Pakistani politician Jehangir Khan Tarin announced the launch of his new party "Istiqam Pakistan" on Thursday in the city of Lahore, the capital of the eastern province of Punjab, with a number of dissident leaders from the Insaf Party, led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Jehangir Khan Tarin, who was a member of the Insaf Party and a close associate of Imran Khan, had split from Insaf because of differences between him and Imran Khan at the start of the crisis before Khan's no-confidence in parliament.
Tarin announced the new party with members of national and regional parliaments and former leaders of the Insaf Party, led by Aleem Khan and Imran Ismail, who was governor of Pakistan's southern province of Sindh.
According to Pakistani media, Tarin's new party is backed by a number of prominent politicians, which could make a real difference in the general election in the near future.
Imran Khan had previously announced in an earlier speech that the country's sovereign establishment was seeking to form a party he described as the "king's party" in order to weaken and divide his party, at a time when there were reports of divisions within the party.