Islamabad: The Islamabad court rejected the request of the police to extend the physical remand of former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry and sent him to jail on judicial remand.
Fawad – who is facing charges of sedition for publicly “threatening” members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) at a media talk – was arrested on Wednesday after a case was registered against him at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station. was arrested from his residence in Lahore.
After the physical remand ended, he was produced in court on Friday, but the judicial magistrate rejected the prosecution’s request for extension.
Later, the Sessions Court annulled the decision.
On Saturday, the Judicial Magistrate granted the two-day remand of the police and directed the authorities to produce Fawad in the court after the remand ends.
The police sought further detention, pleading that they were not given enough time to interrogate Fawad and conduct photographic tests. The PTI leader was taken to his residence in Lahore on Sunday to recover the communication equipment.
Today’s hearing
The PTI leader was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja today after his two-day physical remand.
He was supposed to be produced in the court at 11:30 am today, but despite the judge’s instructions to the prosecution team, the PTI leader could not be produced in the court till 3:30 pm.
However, when Fawad finally appeared in court, the police again requested the judge to extend the PTI leader’s physical remand.
The prosecutor said that a photographic test has been conducted but they want to recover Fawad’s mobile, laptop and other devices.
To the judge’s query, the official said that “a photometric test is conducted to verify the identity of a person with a sound and photo match”.
Meanwhile, ECP’s counsel did not press for further remand. The ECP lawyer said that we only wanted the photography matric test, which has been done.
In response, Fawad’s lawyer Babar Awan said that his client had admitted that he had passed the comments and he stood by his statement.
“I don’t know who the prosecution wants to please. They have made the case a joke. Which laptop do they want to recover?”
Awan pleaded with the judge not to let him abuse [Fawad].
“Did they cover your face with a cloth today?” The judge asked Fawad. The PTI leader replied that he did not.
However, he told the court, “I didn’t sleep more than two-and-a-half hours in six days,” adding, “I was loaded into the cargo bed of a police pickup truck in the cold.”
FIR
On the complaint of Secretary ECP Umar Hamid Khan, an FIR (No. 69/23) was registered against the PTI leader under Sections 153-A, 506, 505 and 124-A of the PPC, which said It is said that the accused used threatening language against the commission and him. Members
The FIR said that while talking to the media and people, the accused threatened the ECP members and their families.
The FIR shows that Fawad had said that the ECP had been demoted to ‘Munshi’ (clerk or personal assistant).
Fawad has been quoted in the FIR as saying that those who are part of the caretaker government will be pursued till they are punished. He also said that the people sitting in the government will be chased to their homes.
