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Islamabad Court Slaps Pakistan's Former Information Minister With 14-Day Judicial Custody

© AFP 2023 AAMIR QURESHIPakistan's former information minister Fawad Chaudhry (C) gestures as police officials escort him after a hearing at a court in Islamabad on January 27, 2023.
Pakistan's former information minister Fawad Chaudhry (C) gestures as police officials escort him after a hearing at a court in Islamabad on January 27, 2023. - Sputnik India, 1920, 27.01.2023
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Pakistan's former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, a close associate of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, was arrested early Wednesday morning.
An Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday sent the country's former Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry to prison on a 14-day judicial remand; he's been charged with threatening election commission members.
Earlier, the court ruled that the former minister be incarcerated for two days following his arrest at his residence in Lahore city.
The arrest of Chaudhry came after a report was lodged against him by an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) employee, alleging that he had threatened the members of the constitutional body at a police station in Islamabad.
The ECP's petition, urging the court to extend Chaudhry's remand, was taken up by Justice Raja Waqas Ahmed on Friday morning.
At the start of the court hearing, the polling body's lawyer Saad Hassan informed the judge that Chaudhry had attempted to tarnish the image of the constitutional authority and was inciting violence against it.
"Fawad is trying to create unrest," he said. “The statement threatens the lives of the election commission’s workers."
The election commission's prosecutor then argued that an extension to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) politician's remand was necessary to continue the investigation of the case.
"A day had already passed when the remand was approved at 12 am," he said. "Technically [speaking] we just got his remand for a day and we want an extension to it."

The ECP lawyer noted that while Chaudhry was a senior member of a political party, "no one is above the law". "It is important to recover Fawad's laptop and mobile phone in his presence."

At this, Chaudhry's counsel Babar Awan alleged that the ECP was acting like an agent of the Shehbaz Sharif-led government before adding that the workers of the PTI were being "blamed and pressured."
Disagreeing with the election commission's lawyer's argument to extend Chaudhry's remand, Awan said that his client's statement was in the public domain and hence no further investigation was required in the case.
After both parties concluded their arguments, the judge approved the minister's judicial remand and not the physical remand demanded by the police.
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