ISLAMABAD: A senior broadcast journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, was released by a local court in Pakistan’s eastern Lahore city on Friday after it dismissed the charge of “hate speech” against him which prompted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest him a day before.
Khan, who works with a local news channel and is widely viewed as an ardent supporter of former prime minister Imran Khan, was taken into custody while he was trying to leave for the United Arab Emirates after making “violence-inducing statements” during a speech at a conference.
His arrest also elicited reaction from New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists that asked Pakistani authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release him.
“Praise be to God, [I am] taking him [with me] again,” his lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq, said in a Twitter post while sharing his photograph with Khan
Local media said the FIA requested for 14-day physical remand while presenting the journalist before judicial magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk on Friday.
According to the police complaint against him, Khan had criticized former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during his speech, though his lawyer maintained there was nothing wrong in asking someone to “stay within constitutional limits.”
“Imran Riaz did not target any institution,” Dawn quoted his lawyer as saying.
Subsequently, the court dismissed the charges against the journalist while ordering his release.
Khan was last taken into custody in July last year but released a week later on bail.
A total of 17 cases were registered against him in different cities in Punjab, the country’s most populated province, in what he calls political victimization over views critical of the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif and the all-powerful military. Both deny the charge.
