A local court in Lahore on Friday acquitted anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan, a critic of the current government and a staunch supporter of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), from a cybercrime case and ordered his immediate release. Ordered to be released.
Earlier today, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested the anchor person from Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport.
The FIA produced Khan in the court of Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Wark and sought a 14-day physical remand of the accused.
During the hearing, the TV anchorperson’s lawyer opposed the FIA application and requested the court to dismiss the case against his client.
Khan was arrested on Thursday – the same day Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a PTI ally, was arrested by Islamabad police. Last month, PTI’s senior vice-president Fawad Chaudhry was also detained in a sedition case.
This is not the first time that the FIA has barred an anchor person from boarding a flight.
In July 2022, authorities offloaded Khan from a flight to Dubai.
At the time, immigration sources shared that the anchorperson — who had several cases filed against him, including sedition — was offloaded because his name was on the blacklist.
