Former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 12 was granted release on bail for two weeks by judges in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, a day after the Supreme Court ruled as unlawful his arrest that sparked a wave of deadly unrest across the south Asian nation.
"The Islamabad High Court has given a two-week bail and also ordered (Pakistan's anti-corruption agency) not to arrest Imran Khan during this time," lawyer Faisal Chaudhry told the media after the hearing.
Babar Awan, the head of Khan's legal team, told reporters the former prime minister was now "a free man."
The Islamabad High Court ruled to grant Khan interim bail in one of multiple corruption cases against him as he appeared before judges to learn whether or not he would be rearrested and kept in custody following the Supreme Court's decision on May 10, a day after he was arrested.
Khan has been at odds with Pakistan's powerful military establishment ever since he was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April last year.
He has been leading the opposition since his ouster, which he claimed was part of a plot by the current government and the United States. Both deny involvement.
Khan has rejected the multiple corruption cases opened against him as politically motivated.
His arrest on May 9 came a day after he accused a senior army general of being involved in an attempt on his life last year.
The 70-year-old former cricket star-turned-Islamist politician still enjoys huge popularity among Pakistanis as the main opposition leader.
His arrest enraged his legions of supporters, who went on a rampage in several regions of Pakistan, clashing with security forces, attacking military installations, and burning down buildings housing state institutions.
At least eight people have been killed in the unrest and some 2,000 have been arrested for violence since May 9, when he was grabbed from an Islamabad court and detained by the anti-corruption body NAB in an alleged land fraud case.
The government ordered the deployment of troops to quell the turmoil in some regions, including Khan's home province of Punjab and the volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
Several senior leaders from Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party were arrested, including Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar, after the military said it held the PTI responsible for the turmoil.
On May 11, a three-judge bench at the Supreme Court heard Khan's petition to be freed and ruled that his arrest had been illegal, ordering his immediate release, but advised the former prime minister to cooperate with the anticorruption agency investigating charges against him.
The elections commission in October disqualified Khan from holding public office for five years after a court established his guilt in a separate case known as Tosha Khana in which he is accused of profiting from state gifts received during his term as prime minister. He rejected the charges.
Khan was wounded in a gun attack in November while leading a political march toward Islamabad. One of Khan’s supporters was killed and several others were wounded in that shooting.