Move on Pakistan chairman sent to jail on remand

Two other party officials given into police custody

ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate on Monday sent Move on Pakistan (MoP) Party Chairperson Mohammad Kamran to Adiala jail on 14-day judicial remand for displaying controversial banners in Islamabad and other cities.

Judicial Magistrate Salman Badar also extended physical remand of two other MoP Party officials, Ali Raza and Asif Iqbal, for two days.

The three had obtained protective bail from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) until July 22nd.

Islamabad Police arrested Kamran some six days ago, while the other two had surrendered themselves to the police after expiry of their protective and interim bails.



Inspector Muhammad Yaseen Bhutta of the Secretariat police produced the suspects before the court requesting to send Kamran to jail on judicial remand and extending physical remand of Raza and Iqbal for two days. The court allowed the inspectors requests.

The banners that sprang up overnight in major cities a few weeks ago, and had pictures of COAS Gen Raheel Sharif with the caption “Jaane ki baatein hueen purani, Khuda ke liye ab aajao”, were seen as an invitation for the army to impose martial law.

Secretariat police had registered a case against unidentified persons for putting the banners on display in the capital on June 14th and had arrested a driver and an outdoor advertiser, who were hired by the party to put up the banners, the next day.



The two are still in jail on judicial remand.

The suspects were booked for “sedition”, “conspiracy” and for “statements conducing to public mischief”.

However, nobody has been formally charged yet.

Cases against the party were also registered in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2016.