The capital police on Saturday filed a petition in a district and sessions court against a verdict of a judicial magistrate to reject a plea for extension in physical remand of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in a case related to threatening members of the electoral body and their families.
Police have pleaded the court to declare Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja’s ruling null and void. Additional District and Sessions Judge Tahir Mahmood has issued notices to the parties in the case and directed authorities to produce Mr Chaudhry before court by 12:30pm today.
Meanwhile, Mr Chaudhry has filed a seprate petition against the magistrate s verdict, pleading that the sessions court discharge a case against him. The PTI stalwart argued that the case against him should have been discharged but the magistrate sent him to jail on judicial remand.
A day earlier, the judicial magistrate sent the former information minister to the Adiala Jail on 14-day judicial remand after turning down a police plea for extension in the physical remand. The PTI bigwig was produced before the magistrate in handcuffs after his two-day remand ended on Friday in the case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary.
During the hearing, the prosecutor pleaded the court to extend physical remand of the PTI leader as the investigation team needed more time to complete the probe. Reading out the content of the FIR, he said the former minister attempted to incite violence against ECP officials and their families. He said voice-matching test of the suspect had been completed while there was a need to take him to Lahore for photogrammetric test.
He also sought permission to search the house of Imran Khan’s aide to recover laptop and mobile phone. He said the role of the electoral body was crucial in the coming months due to elections but Mr Chaudhry was trying to put pressure on the ECP.
However, Fawad Chaudhry’s lawyer Babar Awan expressed reservations over treatment meted out to his client, stating that the PTI leader was treated as a “terrorist”. He said the statement of Mr Chaudhry was reflection of public opinion against the ECP. He also requested the court to discharge his client’s name from the case.
On Wednesday, Duty Magistrate Naveed Khan handed over the PTI stalwart in the custody of the Islamabad police on a two-day physical remand after he was arrested from his residence in Lahore in a case filed over hurling threats at officials of the ECP and their families. The investigating officer had sought eight-day physical remand of the former minister but the request was rejected.
