An Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday sent PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry to Adiala jail on a 14-day judicial remand in a case over alleged incitement of violence against a constitutional institution. The court on Wednesday night had granted police an initial two-day remand of Fawad, hours after he was arrested. 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 ECP’s plea for an extension to Fawad’s remand was heard in the courtroom of Judge Raja Waqas Ahmed today.

At the onset of the hearing, 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 passed 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.” The ECP lawyer told the court that Fawad’s statement was available on record, adding that the PTI leader had also acknowledged his speech. “No one can object the speech. “The accused has accepted his statement.” He added that the election commission’s employees were told that they do “the work of a clerk”. “We were threatened that they (PTI supporters) will reach our homes.” At this, Fawad’s counsel Babar Awan accused the election commission of colluding with the government against PTI. “We are being blamed and pressurised.” The ECP lawyer responded that Fawad was a senior politician but “no one is above the law”.

He told the court that it was mandatory to search the PTI leader’s home. “It is important to recover Fawad’s laptop and mobile phone in his presence”. Following the conclusion of the arguments, the judge approved Fawad’s request to have his handcuffs removed inside the court and also reserved its verdict on the issue of remand extension. 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?” A first information report was registered against the PTI leader at the Kohsar police station in Islamabad on the complaint of Secretary of the Election Commission Umar Hameed. The complaint — a copy of which is available with Dawn.com — invokes 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 Fawad, 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”. It added that the case will be processed as per the law.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP