A video shared on social media shows an aircraft carrying a ‘Release Imran Khan’ banner across the stadium after play was stopped because of rain.

This is not the first instance where fans and supporters of Khan have unfurled banners at cricket matches. In the lead-up to the World Cup, a Khan supporter was seen collecting an autograph from Pakistan wicket-keeper Mohammed Rizwan during Pakistan’s T20I series in Ireland on a ‘Release Imran Khan’ poster.

The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician, who is current incarcerated in a Rawalpindi jail, has been facing jail term since August 2023 with multiple cases in his name. He was arrested when was found guilty in the Toshakhana corruption case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Khan was first imprisoned in the Attock Jail and later shifted to the Adiala Jail.

While Khan was facing various terms for four cases, the Islamabad High Court overturned the jail sentence in a case related to the leaking of state secrets earlier this week, according to a Reuters report.

The demand comes when a district and sessions court in Islamabad acquitted the former prime minister and others in two protest and vandalism cases registered at Bhara Kahu police station.

Judicial Magistrate Sohaib Bilal Ranjha pronounced a reserved verdict, acquitting 11 accused other than Imran Khan including Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Saifullah Niazi, Aamir Mahmood Kayani, Pervez Khattak, Shireen Mazari, Faisal Javed, Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Faisal Javed, and Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.

Earlier, a district and sessions court in Islamabad acquitted him in May 25 long march and vandalism cases.

The court pronounced the reserved judgement acquitting the PTI founder in the case. Judicial Magistrate Shaista Kundi heard the court production and acquittal petitions in two cases of long march and vandalism.