Fawad sent on two-day physical remand

ISLAMABAD: A local court in Islamabad sent the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry on a two-day physical remand in a sedition case on Saturday as Chairman Imran Khan wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial asking him to ensure that the fundamental rights of his party’s senior vice president were ensured.

Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja announced the verdict after earlier in the day a district and sessions court accepted the Islamabad Police’s petition overturning a decision on sending the former minister on judicial remand and rejected Fawad’s plea to discharge him from the sedition case.

In the order issued on Saturday, the judicial magistrate ordered the Islamabad Police to produce the former federal information minister before his court on Monday (January 30) upon the expiry of his remand.

Fawad, who is facing sedition charges for publicly “threatening” the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a media talk, was arrested from his Lahore residence on Wednesday after a case was registered against him at the Kohsar Police Station.

He was presented before the court on Friday after the expiry of his physical remand, however, the prosecution’s request for an extension was turned down by Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja. Later, the decision was overturned by the session court.

On the other hand, Imran Khan Saturday wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, asking him to ensure that the fundamental rights of his party’s senior vice president, Fawad Chaudhry, were ensured.

The letter comes after the PTI leader was sent on remand in a sedition case, which has invited severe criticism not only from his party but also from senior members of the government.

In his letter to the CJP, the former prime minister mentioned that as the top judge is the custodian of the Constitution, he requests him to “ensure that honour and dignity of Mr Fawad Ch [are] not violated”.

The former prime minister cited the “inhuman” treatment dealt to Senator Azam Swati and PTI leader Shahbaz Gill while they were in the custody of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in two separate cases.

The PTI chief feared the former information minister would be subjected to similar ill-treatment, in violation of articles 9, 10A, and 14, which pertain to the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, and inviolability of the dignity of a human being.

In a series of tweets earlier, PTI Chairman Khan lashed out at the authorities and said that the manner in which Fawad was presented before the court was proof of the government’s “vindictiveness”.

Referring to the current government and its leaders as “pharaohs”, Khan also underscored the treatment meted out to PTI leaders Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill as proof that the country was in disarray.

“Taking Fawad to court handcuffed and head/face covered like a terrorist shows the low and vindictive levels [the] imported government and state have reached,” he said.

“The treatment of Fawad and Azam Swati and Gill before him leaves no doubt in people’s mind that now we are a banana republic,” the ex-prime minister, who was ousted last April, said. Khan further added: “The law of the jungle now prevails where might is right & the Constitution & law of the land have been totally subjugated by the Pharaohs of today.”