ISLAMABAD: A district judge in Islamabad has ordered that ex-premier Imran Khan’s close aide, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, be jailed on remand for 14 days in a case involving charges of sedition, among others, filed by the country’s election regulator.
The former information minister was arrested in Lahore early morning on Wednesday after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lodged a complaint with Islamabad police saying the leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had threatened members of the regulator as well as their families and made remarks in a TV interview that were tantamount to inciting violence against them.
Husain was brought to the lower court in handcuffs amid heavy deployment of police on Friday morning after the expiry of a two-day physical remand. The judge later approved his request that the handcuffs be removed.
“The case against Fawad is frivolous and it must be discharged,” Hussain’s lawyer Babar Awan urged the court, later filing a bail application that called the charges “frivolous and baseless.”
During the hearing, the courtroom of judicial magistrate Raja Waqas Ahmed was packed to capacity and police officers had to stop PTI supporters and members of the public from entering the court.
Dozens of PTI supporters and leaders gathered outside the courtroom and chanted slogans against the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which they accuse of cracking down on political opponents.
During the hearing, the prosecutor and ECP lawyer Saad Hassan sought an extension in Hussain’s two-day remand, saying he had to be taken to Lahore for a photogrammetry test.
“Fawad has incited violence against the election commission’s workers,” Hassan told the court. “He isn’t alone as a group of leaders have been doing so against the constitutional body,” he added, in a veiled reference to PTI’s senior leadership.
“The recovery of Fawad’s mobile phone and laptop is required to complete the investigation,” the lawyer said.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge reserved the judgment briefly and later announced the 14-day extension in remand.
A smiling Hussain made victory signs at a charged crowd showering him with rose petals as he left the courtroom surrounded by police.
Islamabad district court judge Syed Faizan Haider will hear Hussain’s bail petition tomorrow, Saturday.
Separately, Islamabad police registered a case against PTI information secretary Farrukh Habib for trying to obstruct the work of the police team that was bringing Hussain from Lahore to Islamabad on Wednesday.
The FIR accuses Habib and up to ten unnamed men who accompanied him of “tearing the uniform” of the police head constable on duty and snatching a wireless set from them during resistance.
The police also accused Habib of trying to free Fawad from police custody.
In video footage widely played on mainstream media and shared online, Habib was seen at the Kala Shah Kaku Motorway Toll Plaza, trying to block the police vehicle in which Hussain was being transported to Islamabad, shouting that he must be presented before the Lahore High Court.
Since being ousted from the PM’s office in a parliamentary no-trust vote, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has refused to accept the coalition government of PM Sharif and campaigned for snap polls since being ousted from power in a parliamentary vote last April, holding protest marches and rallies across the country.
In recent months, his relationship with Pakistan’s all-powerful military, which is widely believed to have propelled his rise to the PM’s office, has sharply deteriorated as he blames it, and its then army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, of being part of a foreign conspiracy by the United States to remove his government. Washington and the army deny the charge.
The latest arrest has raised political tensions and heightened uncertainty in Pakistan at a time that the South Asian nation faces high inflation, dwindling foreign reserves and widening deficits. The country is in a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program.
Hussain’s arrest comes months after another close Khan aide, Dr. Shahbaz Gill, was arrested by police and accused of inciting mutiny against the military. Gill is out on bail. Another PTI leader, Senator Azam Swati, was also arrested and released on bail in multiple cases, including for posting tweets considered to be anti-military.
