A banking court in Islamabad extended on Thursday the interim bail of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan till November 23 in the prohibited funding case under the Foreign Exchange Act.

The court gave the extension while hearing the case against Imran Khan, Tariq Shafi, Faisal Maqbool and others pertaining to the PTI receving funds from foreign nationals and companies, which is prohibited under Pakistan’s laws.

The case was initially referred to as the foreign funding case, with the ECP ordering back in June for it to be referred to as prohibited funding case. In August, the ECP ruled that the PTI received ‘prohibited funds’ from 34 foreign nationals and 351 companies based outside the country. ECP also disqualified Imran Khan from holding public office in the same decision.

The same was revealed in an explosive article by British journalist Simon Clark in July, who detailed how a charity cricket match was used to funnel funds to the PTI.

A little over a week after the ECP verdict, the PTI challenged it in the Islamabad High Court. What followed was another round of hearings, with the IHC allowing PTI’s estranged founding member Akbar S. Babar, who first alleged that the PTI received funding from prohibited sources, to become party to the case. The IHC ordered that the case should be shifted to the banking court on October 28.

Meanwhile, the FIA booked Imran and other PTI leaders in the case filed by the state through FIA’s Corporate Banking Circle in Islamabad. The first information report (FIR) stated that Arif Masood Naqvi — the owner of the Wooton Cricket Limited — transferred “ill-gotten” money to a United Bank Limited (UBL) account registered under the name of the PTI.

The complaint named Imran Khan, Sardar Azhar Tariq Khan, Saifullah Khan Nyazee, Syed Yunus Ali Raza, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Tariq Rahim Sheikh, Tariq Shafi, Faisal Maqbool Shaikh, Hamid Zaman and Manzoor Ahmad Chaudhary as signatories/beneficiaries of the PTI account in question.

The IHC first formed a larger bench to hear the case while also extending Imran and his co-accused’s interim bail before ordering them to approach the banking court over the issue. It also ordered Imran and his co-accused to join the FIA investigation.

In today’s hearing, Raja Rizwan appeared before the court on behalf of the prosecution.

Imran’s lawyer filed a request for exemption from attendance, which the prosecutor opposed.

When the court asked when could Imran join the investigation, his lawyer said that the PTI chief was currently on bed rest, having survived an attempted assassination a week earlier. “He will join the investigation after having a medical checkup,” while adding that the PTI leader had 24 FIRs registered against him and he was addressing all of them.

Upon this, the court extended Imran and his co-accused’s bail till November 23 and adjourned hearing.