ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Farrukh Habib and party workers were booked on Friday for attempting to stop the police convoy transporting senior leader Fawad Chaudhry to Islamabad from Lahore after getting transit remand on Wednesday.
The PTI workers were charged under 'dacoity', among other charges, in a first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, registered at Ferozwala police station on the complaint of SHO Adeel Shaukat of the Islamabad police.
Former minister Fawad Chaudhry was arrested on charges of sedition and "inciting violence against a constitutional institution".
Following this, PTI leaders had expressed reservations and anguish over the arrest and had demanded his immediate release.
“Arguments should be countered by arguments, and not by arrests. The coalition government should appear before the court to prove him [Fawad] wrong,” PTI General Secretary Asad Umar had said while talking to the media.
A plea was also filed on Wednesday in the Lahore High Court (LHC) by Fawad’s cousin against the arrest. The petitioner had argued that his cousin was arrested “illegally, unconstitutionally and without legal authority.”
He had pleaded the court to issue directions to police officials to recover his cousin from the “illegal and unlawful confinement” and produce him before the high court.
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The hearing was adjourned at least four times as the judge had repeatedly directed authorities to present the PTI leader before the court.
Senior party leader Farrukh Habib had expressed his frustration, saying those who had not produced Fawad before the LHC should be brought to justice. He had appealed to the judiciary to take action against the Punjab IGP.
However, an LHC bench, headed by Justice Tariq Saleem, had rejected the plea noting that Fawad’s detention was “not illegal”.
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