Anchor Ghulam Hussain sent on judicial remand

A Lahore district and sessions court on Friday sent ARY anchorperson Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in a case pertaining to bank fraud.

The septuagenarian TV anchor was taken into custody from a coffee shop in Lahore by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday.

On Friday, when the anchor was presented before the court, the FIA submitted a plea seeking a physical remand of the journalist for 14 days.

FIA prosecutor Munim Bashir told the court that the anchor did not return a loan he had taken from a bank after submitting fake documents.

However, Hussain’s lawyer Azhar Siddiqui contended that the case was more than a decade old and the FIR against his client was registered in 2011. “Will the FIA now work for banks to recover the money?”

He said that Hussain had never been accused of submitting fake documents.

The court asked the FIA prosecutor about how the anchor was appearing on national television every day if he had been declared a proclaimed offender in 2013. “What were you doing since 2013?”

Hussain’s lawyer said that his client had no role in the case, adding that all the other people named in the case had been released. “Hussain has already returned 47 per cent of the amount as a guarantor.”

Meanwhile, Hussain said that the property in question was worth Rs450 million out of which Rs250 million had already been paid. “This matter is now pending in the Supreme Court,” he added.

Subsequently, the court rejected the FIA’s plea for Hussain’s physical remand and sent the journalist to jail on 14-day judicial remand and instructed the agency to return his identity card.