Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was granted a two-day physical remand on Wednesday night by an Islamabad district and sessions court in a sedition case.
The PTI chairman was wanted by the Islamabad Police for an eight-day physical detention, but the court denied their motion and ordered the authorities to appear with the PTI leader on January 27.
The PTI senior leader was taken by the police to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) as the jury deliberated and there he received a medical examination and was given the all clear.
The former federal minister has angrily denied all allegations and urged that the case be dropped because “the FIR is a farce” and that the case is fraudulent.
The PTI leader made the statements in Lahore, thus the case ought to have been filed there rather than in Islamabad, according to Fawad’s attorneys, who claimed that the accusations were politically motivated.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members and their families were publicly “threatened” by the PTI politician in a media interview a day earlier, leading to his arrest outside of his Lahore home earlier today.
The police transported the former minister of information to Islamabad where he was brought before the H-8 court after securing a transitional remand from a court in the capital of Punjab.
Fawad’s cousin Nabeel Shehzad petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the “rescue” of the PTI leader hours after his incarceration. The Islamabad High Court (IHC), which was the appropriate forum in this case, was finally instructed by the court after multiple breaks.
At the outset of the hearing, the election commission’s lawyer said that the ECP is a “constitutional institution” and noted that it has the authority to hold polls.
“The election commission has been targetted under a well-thought-out plan,” the ECP’s counsel said, with the duty judge asking Fawad to not intervene in the middle — as the PTI leader taking jibes at the institution.
The counsel added that the aim behind Fawad’s press conference was to incite the general public, and he had also threatened the commission’s family members.
“The aim of the speech was to spread hatred against the election commission. We also have electronic evidence against Fawad Chaudhry,” the lawyer claimed.
He added that the PTI leader has also accepted that he had accepted that he made the threats. “So, isn’t it our right to decide something against Fawad Chaudhry?”
The lawyer added that the PTI also ran a campaign against the commission and argued that the police should be allowed to look into the statements of the former minister.
