Anti-state propaganda case: Court extends physical remand of PTI leaders

ISLAMABAD: A local court, on Thursday, extended the physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary Information Raoof Hasan and others for three days in a case registered against them regarding allegedly spreading anti-state propaganda.

Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Shabbir Bhatti, while announcing its reserved judgment, extended the physical remand of Hasan and other accused including Waqas Ahmad, Afaq Ahmad Alvi, Hamidullah, Rashid Mehmood, ZeeshanFarooq, Syed Osama Wajid, Muhammad Rizwan Afzal, Muhammad Rafiq, and Syed Hamza.

However, the same court granted bail to two women Farhat Khalid and Iqra who were also arrested from the PTI Central Secretariat against the surety bonds of 50,000.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials produced Hasan and other accused before the court after the expiry of their previous two-day remand. At the start of the hearing, the prosecutor requested the court to extend the physical remand of the accused as the agency has so far not recovered social media accounts.

The agency experts have yet to log in to Gmail accounts, he said, adding that paid people are running WhatsApp groups which include people from abroad, he said, adding that the agency has recovered fake accounts from the mobile phones of the accused.

He alleged that Hasan is heading the social media team and he gives directions for propaganda against the administration and judiciary.

Jibran Illyas is working from abroad, he said, adding that the agency has only one technical expert; therefore, further time is required for investigation.

Sardar Latif Khosa, counsel for all the accused while objecting to the prosecution's request regarding the extension of physical remand, said that all the sections cited in the first information report are not applicable. He said that no allegations levelled in the case were proven.

He said that all the allegations in the FIR are baseless; therefore, the accused should be discharged from the case. When we staged they registered cases against us under Section 7ATA, he said, adding that Hasan is a cancer patient and he served the country for 75 years. Hasan survived an assassination attempt but police arrested no one, he said.

Another PTI lawyer Ali Bukhari said that what they want to recover from the receptionist and office security guard.

The agency has already taken the mobile phones of all the accused in their custody, he said, adding that if they want to conduct laboratory tests of the accused then should take blood samples from them why agency put them in their custody?

The prosecutor further told the court that remand of the accused is not only required for recovery but remand also necessary for further investigation. We do not say that we want to punish them but we want to conduct an in-depth investigation, he said.

The court, after hearing arguments of both the parties, reserved the verdict for some time. Later while announcing its verdict extended the physical remand of all the accused for three days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024