By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad court granted police a two-day physical remand of Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in a sedition case.
Islamabad police requested the court for an eight-day physical remand to complete the investigation in the case. However, the district and sessions court granted police a two-day physical remand, directing them to present Chaudhry again in court on January 27.
During the time that the verdict was being reserved, the police took Chaudhry to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where he underwent a medical examination and was declared fit.
Following the order, the close aide to former prime minister Imran Khan was transferred to the Counter-Terrorism Department’s complex in Sector H-11 by the capital’s police.
Chaudhry was arrested in Lahore on Wednesday morning, hours after he publicly censured the government for scheming to arrest party chairman Khan.
A case was registered against Chaudhary last night on the complaint of Election Commission Secretary Umar Hameed. The FIR was registered against Chaudhry under sections 153-A (promotion of enmity between groups), 506 (criminal intimidation), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistan Penal Code at Islamabad’s Kohsar Police Station.
It stated that Chaudhry, in a speech outside Khan’s house, threatened the ECP and said that “those who become part of the caretaker government [in Punjab] will be pursued until they are punished”.
However, Chaudhary has denied all charges and demanded the case’s dismissal as it is “fraud and the FIR is a sham”.
His lawyers told the court that the charges were politically motivated, and that because the PTI leader made the statements in Lahore, his case should have been filed there rather than in Islamabad.
Criticising the arrest of Chaudhary, former premier Khan called on the judges of the apex court to protect the fundamental rights of his party members.
In a televised press conference, the PTI chairman addressed the Supreme Court judges, saying they had been entrusted with upholding the rule of law, as he questioned the judiciary for Chaudhary’s crime for his arrest.
Khan claimed that the ECP was in charge of holding free and fair elections in the country, reiterating his criticism of the commission’s decision to appoint media mogul Mohsin Naqvi as Punjab’s caretaker chief minister.
He also claimed that police had already started to harass PTI workers, adding that whatever was happening was being carried out “according to a plan”.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
