An Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday reserved its verdict on the Election Commission of Pakistan’s plea to extend PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry’s remand.
The court on Wednesday night had granted police an initial two-day remand of Fawad, hours after he was arrested for “inciting violence against a constitutional institution”.
The former information minister was taken into custody after a first information report (FIR) against him was registered at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station by an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for “threatening” the electoral body’s members and their families.
The case is being heard in the courtroom of Judge Raja Waqas Ahmed.
At the onset of the hearing today, the election commission’s lawyer Saad Hassan, the prosecutor in the case, informed the court that the PTI leader’s voice matching had been completed. He requested an extension in remand, saying that Fawad had to be taken to Lahore for a photogrammetric test.
The prosecutor contended before the court that the former federal minister was inciting hatred against a constitutional institution. “Fawad is trying to create unrest,” he said. “The statement threatens the lives of the election commission’s workers.”
The ECP lawyer argued that an extension to the PTI leader’s remand was imperative to carry out further investigation in the case. He cited the Shehbaz Gill case as an example.
“A day had already ended when the remand was approved at 12am,” the investigation officer said. “Technically [speaking] we just got his remand for a day and we want an extension to it.”
Ahead of the hearing, Heavy contingents of Frontier Corps personnel and police were deployed outside the court. Some PTI workers also clashed with policemen.
Media personnel, former human rights minister Shireen Mazari and ex-SAPM Zulfi Bukhari among other PTI leaders were restrained by police from going inside the courtroom.“Are we terrorists that we are not allowed to go inside the court?” Mazari remarked while talking to the media. “Are you taking revenge from us?”
