A court in Pakistan on Thursday rejected a police plea seeking a 30-day remand of former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and instead sent him to a 14-day judicial custody in a fresh case linked to the May 9 attack on military installations.
The development comes a day after the 67-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: vice chairman was arrested by the Punjab police in a bizarre show of power by pushing him into an armoured van as he was booked in a fresh case linked to May 9 riots, just when he was released on bail in the cipher case.
According to media reports, he was also implicated in a dozen similar cases. He was presented before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Syed Jahangir Ali. Video footage showed Qureshi being led into the court by police. When asked by some journalist if he was scared, the handcuffed politician said: No.
However, the former foreign minister later told the judge that he was kept in a cold cell last night and wasn’t allowed to sleep. “I was tortured mentally and physically,” he claimed. He also said a police team came to him to record a statement on the May 9 violence to name him in cases related to the incident. I was in Karachi on May 9 my wife was undergoing surgery (that day), he said.
He said that he was a former foreign minister who fought for Pakistan on the external front. “I fought Pakistan’s case at the international level. I have been cleaning up Pakistan and institutions in the international world. Is this justice?” He also stated that during his arrest at the gate of Adiala Jail on Wednesday, police officials had kicked and ridiculed him, claiming that he wasn’t taken to a doctor despite chest pains. BBC Urdu reported that while making a statement before the judge, Qureshi at one point began sobbing, prompting the judge to order police to remove his handcuffs.
After hearing him and arguments by lawyers, the judge rejected the police plea for physical remand and instead sent him to jail for two weeks.
According to another video, Qureshi is seen lifting his hands to pose for a victory sign as he is being taken away by the police after hearing.
Qureshi’s daughter Meher Bano Qureshi in a chat with the media showed displeasure at the treatment of her father. It seems as if they are presenting a terrorist, she said.
Talking about his arrest, she said the scenes had created a joke out of Pakistan in a neighbouring country. “Even the neighbouring country would be wondering how a former foreign minister is being treated, she said.
Thousands of PTI supporters stormed military and government installations across the country following Khan’s arrest in an alleged corruption case on May 9 here.
Since then, Khan and scores of PTI workers have faced multiple cases for attacking military installations and government buildings.
On Thursday, appearing before Duty Magistrate Ali, Prosecution lawyer Akram Amin pleaded to the court for the PTI leader’s remand saying that a remand of up to 90 days can be given in a terrorism case.
Presenting the video statement and Qureshi’s tweets as evidence, the prosecution lawyer said Qureshi issued a protest call on his social media handle during the riots that broke out following the arrest of the PTI founder Khan in a corruption case earlier in May this year.
Stating that the protest calls were irrefutable evidence that it was an attack on institutions, the prosecutor maintained: “We have to see what elements were behind the call for protest. We have irrefutable evidence in the light of which the arrest is made.” Qureshi’s lawyer Malik Imran told the court that there is no word mentioned in the report or in the PTI leader’s speech based on which a case could be filed against his client and said the FIR’s copy was not present in the entire challan.
After hearing the arguments, the court reserved its verdict on the police’s plea seeking a 30-day remand of Qureshi in the case related to the May 9 riots.
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