Bail plea filed as Fawad remanded to judicial custody

ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking post-arrest bail of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, who was arrested earlier this week for allegedly intimidating election officials and their families in televised comments, was filed in a district and sessions court in Islamabad on Friday.

The petition was filed soon after Fawad was sent on 14-day judicial remand after a police plea seeking an extension in his physical remand was rejected.

The plea stated the PTI leader had “falsely been involved in the instant case by the complainant with the malafide intention and ulterior motives just to harass, pressurise and blackmail the present petitioner”.

It added the allegations levelled in the FIR were “absolutely false, frivolous and baseless”. It also said Fawad was “innocent and has no link or concern with the commission of alleged offence”. The petition also stated Fawad was arrested “unlawfully and without any justification in negation to the law.”

Sessions Judge Tahir Mahmood Khan forwarded the bail application to Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Gillani to fix for hearing. The additional judge, however, issued notices to all parties while adjourning the hearing till Saturday (today).

Earlier on Friday, the police requested the court for an extension in the physical remand, saying the remand was “necessary” for further investigation, however, the court rejected the plea while announcing the reserved verdict.

The PTI leader was produced before the court in Islamabad after the completion of two-day physical remand in a sedition case. The court on Wednesday approved a two-day physical remand of the PTI leader in a sedition case turning down the Islamabad Police’s request of eight-day physical remand of the former federal minister.

Following the order, the capital’s police shifted the former federal information minister to the Counter-Terrorism Department’s (CTD) complex in Sector H-11.

The police — during the time that the verdict was reserved — also took Fawad to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS),

where he underwent a medical checkup and was declared fit.

The former federal minister — who was arrested from his Lahore residence in the wee hours of Wednesday —vehemently denied all charges and demanded the case’s dismissal.