By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: A Lahore court on Wednesday allowed the Islamabad police to take Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry to Islamabad, hours after he was arrested from outside his residence for “inciting violence against a constitutional institution”.
An FIR against him was registered at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station in the wee hours on Wednesday. An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan was the complainant in the case.
According to Fawad’s brother, the former federal minister was “taken away” in four cars that did not have any number plates at 5:30am. At 10am, Fawad was brought to Lahore’s Cantt court by officials of the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department and police. Upon his entrance, PTI lawyers showered rose petals on Fawad.
Fawad Chaudhry media talk
Talking to the media outside the court, Fawad said that those who arrested him should be ashamed of themselves. At the outset of the proceedings, the investigating officer requested the court to grant Islamabad police the PTI leader’s transit remand. For his part, Fawad asked the judge to provide him with a copy of the FIR registered against him. He went on to say that he was proud of the charges against him. “These allegations were also levelled at Nelson Mandela.”
Commenting on his remarks against the ECP, he said that “the entire country is saying the same”. Meanwhile, Fawad’s lawyer said a habeas corpus petition — a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention — filed by Fawad was pending in the Lahore High Court. “Until a decision is taken on that, a transit remand can’t be granted.”
Here, the judicial magistrate instructed the police to conduct a medical examination of Fawad at the Lahore Services Hospital and instructed the police to present him before a court in Islamabad today.
Meanwhile, a petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) challenging the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry. Through his application filed on Wednesday, the applicant pleaded the court to declared the PTI leader’s arrest as illegal. The petitioner also prayed the LHC to hear his plea at the earliest. Registrar Office LHC forwarded the petition to chief justice for fixing it for hearing.
