By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry was arrested in the wee hours of Wednesday in Lahore, his brother and the party said.
PTI leader Farrukh Habib confirmed that Chaudhry was taken into custody from his residence.
The arrest was made shortly after Chaudhry publicly criticised the government for plotting to arrest the former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan.
Chaudhry held a news conference outside Khan’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore where PTI supporters had gathered in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday morning amid widespread speculation that the ex-PM might be arrested.
Later in the Wednesday morning, the PTI Twitter handled posted videos showing a convoy of police vehicles which the party claimed was carrying Chaudhry after his arrest.
“These police cars have arrested Fawad and are taking him away,” the PTI said.
Chaudhry’s brother also took to Twitter to confirm the “arrest.”
“My elder brother former Federal Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sahib @fawadchaudhry has been illegally picked up from his house in Lahore by unknown persons in vehicles without number plates,” Faisal Hussain, a lawyer, said. “The abductors have [neither] shown warrants, nor have revealed their identities.”
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 PTI chairman Imran 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”.
Later in a tweet, the Islamabad police said that Fawad tried to “incite violence against a constitutional institution” and “inflame the sentiments of the people”.
Several other PTI leaders condemned Chaudhry’s arrest. Condemning the arrest PTI Sindh president Ali Haider Zaidi said, “Pakistan has become a lawless state.”
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
