Imran’s close aide Fawad walks free after week-long tribulation in sedition case

Tariq Butt, Correspondent / Agencies

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Wednesday accepted Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry’s bail petition on the condition that he would not repeat any such words that can incite violence against a constitutional institution.

Chaudhry was taken into custody on Jan.25 for allegedly "inciting violence against a constitutional institution” — the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). A first information report (FIR) against him was registered at Islamabad’s Kohsar police station on a complaint from ECP Secretary Umar Hameed.

Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gillani granted bail to the PTI leader against Rs20,000 worth of surety bonds. 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.

Chaudhry’s legal counsels Faisal Chaudhry, Babar Awan and Ali Bukhari were present in the court while Saad Hassan presented arguments as the ECP’s representative.

After the investigation officer presented the case’s record, the judge accepted the bail plea and said, "Parliamentarians should not give such statements. Chaudhry should not have given such a statement. "I am granting the bail on the condition that Chaudhry does not repeat such remarks.”

In his bail petition, Chaudhry stated that he "has falsely been involved in the instant case by the complainant with the mala fide intention and ulterior motives just to harass, pressurise and blackmail the present petitioner, whereas, the allegations levelled 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 aforementioned 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.

After his arrest from Lahore, Chaudhry was brought to Islamabad where a magistrate had initially granted two-day physical remand to police.

Later, he was sent to the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi on judicial remand. However, the government appealed against his judicial remand and he was again presented before the magistrate, who had given his physical remand for another two days.

Chaudhry’s second wife made a lot of hue and cry that her spouse was tortured which however, proved incorrect.