A Lahore anti-terrorism courtroom (ATC) prolonged incarcerated PTI chief Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s bodily remand by 9 days in eight circumstances associated to the violence that erupted within the nation after social gathering founder Imran Khan’s arrest on Might 9 final yr, it emerged on Tuesday.
Qureshi’s lawyer advocate Rana Mudassar advised Daybreak.com that the remand was granted on extension requests by the police for eight circumstances.
Countrywide protests erupted on Might 9 final yr after the paramilitary Rangers whisked away Imran from the Islamabad Excessive Courtroom in a corruption case.
Whereas the protests had been underway, social media was flooded with footage of rioting and vandalism at varied spots, together with the Lahore Corps Commander’s residence and Basic Headquarters, the military’s head of workplace in Rawalpindi.
Qureshi in December was implicated in not less than 12 totally different circumstances registered by the Rawalpindi district police in reference to the Might 9 violence. Qureshi was granted bail in 13 circumstances in February. He’s at the moment serving his sentence within the Adiala Jail within the cipher case.
ATC Decide Khalid Arshad presided over the listening to on Monday. The courtroom order dated Might 27, a duplicate of which is obtainable with Daybreak.com, mentioned Qureshi was produced by way of video hyperlink for the case on Friday when the courtroom had initially granted police a three-day remand which lapsed on Sunday.
It added that the police requested an extension in Qureshi’s bodily remand by 30 days in Monday’s listening to with the investigation officer (IO) saying that the USB containing “scary speech” by the PTI chief was despatched to the Punjab Forensic Science Company whereas photogrammetry and voice matching exams had been nonetheless pending.
He contended that the police required an extension to get better the cell phone utilized by Qureshi to allegedly put up inciting messages on X and different social media platforms.
Qureshi’s lawyer advocate Rana Mudassar opposed the request and mentioned that the previous international minister was falsely implicated within the case to delay his launch from Adiala Jail.
He mentioned that Qureshi was not current in Lahore on the day of the incident, and neither any video or USB was out there to help the IO’s claims.
As per the courtroom order, Qureshi himself asserted that he was implicated within the case after a yr to “humiliate him” and that he was harmless within the matter.
In keeping with the order, two prosecution witnesses had implicated Qureshi on Might 12 final yr within the planning, abetment and instigation of the incident’s prevalence.
The courtroom order mentioned the photogrammetry and voice matching exams had been “important to determine the credibility” of the proof within the case and thus granted an additional bodily remand of 9 days to the police, including that the investigation should not be interrupted within the curiosity of justice.
The listening to was adjourned until June 5.