Judicial magistrate grants police custody of Fawad for another two days

A judicial magistrate in Islamabad’s district court on Saturday granted police another two days of physical remand for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry.

Judicial Magistrate Waqas Raja directed police to present Fawad before the court again on Monday.

The decision came after a district and session court in Islamabad on Saturday approved the police plea for granting physical remand of Fawad.

Session Judge Tahir Mahmood announced the reserved verdict over a police petition seeking further physical remand.

The police had urged the sessions judge against the decision of Judicial Magistrate Waqas Raja, on an FIR related to spreading hatred and inciting violence against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The petition urged the sessions judge to annul the decision of the judicial magistrate who had decided to send Fawad to jail on judicial remand.

After hearing all the arguments, the court directed to produce Fawad Chaudhry before the judicial magistrate again and review his decision.

Subsequently, Fawad was presented before Magistrate Raja who heard arguments and after two hours, announced his decision.

Fawad is accused of publicly “threatening” the ECP members and their families.

What has happened so far

On Friday, Fawad Chaudhry was produced before a judicial magistrate in the district and sessions court by the police after the completion of his two-day physical remand.

The prosecutor requested an extension in the physical remand, stating that further investigations were necessary.

The court rejected the police’s plea and granted Fawad 14-day judicial remand and sent him to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

On Wednesday, the court had approved a two-day physical remand of the PTI leader, rejecting the Islamabad police’s request for an eight-day remand.

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

The police also took Fawad to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a medical checkup and declared him fit.

The PTI leader was arrested from his Lahore residence in the early hours of Wednesday after he publicly “threatened” the members of the ECP and their families in a media talk the day before.

Fawad denied all charges and demanded the dismissal of the case, calling it “fraud and the FIR is a shame.”

His lawyers argued that the charges were politically motivated and that since the PTI leader made the statements in Lahore, his case should have been registered there instead of in Islamabad.