Court Sends Fawad Chaudhary To Jail On Judicial Remand In Sedition Case

The court has turned down the request of the police regarding further extension in the physical remand of the PTI leader.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Jan 30^th, 223) A court in Islamabad on Monday turned down the request of the police regarding further extension in the physical remand of PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary and sent him to jail on the judicial remand.

It was the second time that Fawad Chaudhary was sent to jail on judicial remand in the same case.

According to the media reports, the court also rejected the bail plea of PTI leader in the case who was produced there by the police in compliance of the court orders.

The court adjourned further hearing till Tuesday (tomorrow).

Earlier the police gave assurance to the court that former Federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry would be produced before it at 3pm today.

The police gave assurance as the two-day physical remand of Fawad would expire today.

As the outset of the hearing, Advocate Babar Awan, the counsel of Fawad Chaudhary, appeared before the court and asked the Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja to resume the hearing at the earliest.

At this, the judge directed the police to produce the PTI leader at 11:30am after getting his medical examination.

The authorities, however, failed to present him at the given time but assured the court that he would be produced by 3pm.

Advocate Awan later asked the court to give a time close to 12:30pm. Advocate Ali Bukhari, a member of PTI’s legal team, submitted that even if the prosecution wanted to present Fawad by 1:00pm then they should tell but it should be the correct time.

Awan said, “Prosecution has become prisoner of conscience, prosecution should be awakened from its deep slumber,”

At this, the judge observed that the court staff would inform the PTI lawyers about Fawad’s appearance.

The DSP legal also appeared in court and he assured that the PTI leader would be presented in court during court hours.

At this, judge Raja asked the DSP about the exact time about PTI leader's presentation in the court.

An official informed the court that a medical test needed to be done.

"We will produce Fawad before the court at 3:00pm,” sais the official.

Fawad Chaudhary was booked under the sedition charges for publicly “threatening” the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a media talk after he was arrested from his Lahore residence on Wednesday.

Fawad was produced before the court on Friday after the expiry of his physical remand but the court rejected the prosecution’s request for an extension in his physical remand.

Later, a sessions judge set aside the the decision of the judicial magistrate.

The judicial magistrate on Saturday granted the police two-day remand and directed the authorities to produce him before the court after the expiry of the remand.

The police had sought further custody with a plea that they were not given much time to probe Fawad Chaudhry and carry out a photogrammetry test.

The PTI leader was taken to his Lahore residence on Sunday for the recovery of communications devices.

Fawad on Sunday submitted a petition to the Kohsar Police Station’s magistrate for his medical examination.

He submitted that the federal police were not conducting his medical test which was a violation of constitutional rights.

He said that the police had mentally and physically tortured PTI leaders Senator Azam Khan Swati and Shahbaz Gill.

“The police might do the same as they did in the past and this is why they are not conducting my medical,” he added.

The former federal information minister asked the court to take immediate notice of the violation of orders of the court.