ISLAMABAD, Feb 1 (FD): A district and sessions court in the federal capital granted post-arrest bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry in a sedition case registered for hurling threats at officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gillani approved the bail for surety bonds worth Rs20,000. “I am granting bail to Fawad on one condition that he would not issue such statements against institutions,” the judge remarked, adding that the parliamentarians should avoid giving such remarks.
The judge ordered the police to release the PTI leader. The sessions court has rejected prosecutor and the ECP counsel’s request for turning down the bail petition.
During the hearing, Babar Awan, the counsel for the PTI leader, argued the electoral body was not a state, adding that sedition section had been politicised in the case. He said his client had been nominated in a fake case. “Saying to someone that I will take action against you does not mean threatening,” Mr Awan said.
In his bail petition, Mr Chaudhry stated that he “has falsely been involved in the instant case by the complainant with the malafide intention and ulterior motives just to harass, pressurize and blackmail the present petitioner, whereas, the allegations leveled in the FIR are absolutely false, frivolous and baseless and the petitioner is quite innocent. Moreover, the petitioner has no link or concern with the commission of alleged offence”.
“That the petitioner was arrested in the afore-mentioned FIR illegally unlawfully and without any Justification in negation to the law and the Constitutional rights of the petitioner, hence, petitioner seeks the remedy of bail after arrest from this Honorable Court,” it said.
On Jan 31, a judicial magistrate rejected plea seeking extension of physical remand of the PTI leader and sent him to jail on 14-day judicial remand.
The former information minister was taken into custody on Jan 25 after a first information report (FIR) against him was registered at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station on a complaint by the ECP secretary.
