A court of first instance in Islamabad on Friday ordered two weeks of provisional detention for Fawad Chaudhry, the former information minister of former Prime Minister Imran Jan and considered one of the great allies of the ousted president, now immersed in an all-out political struggle against the current government.
Chaudhry was arrested on Wednesday, accused of threatening members of the National Election Commission, including its chairman, Sikandar Sultan Raja, in what the Prosecutor’s Office has described as an attempt to incite violence against a constitutional institution, reports the daily ‘Dawn’.
The former minister, according to the prosecution, clearly threatened the Commission during a speech made on Wednesday outside the former prime minister’s home in which he denounced the panel for allegedly appointing, without having the powers to do so, media mogul Mohsin Naqvi as acting chief minister of the state of Punjab, historic stronghold of the Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI).
The opposition party, it should be recalled, decided to abandon its institutional responsibilities in Punjab, where it held control of the local parliament, by dissolving the legislature as a gesture of protest against the government, and has filed an appeal before the country’s Supreme Court this Friday to disqualify Naqvi.
«We warn the Commission, its members and their families that if they commit atrocities against us, they will have to pay for them. Let it be in writing: we have been patient and cautious but this cannot go on,» the former minister let it be known.
Chaudhry’s defense claims that their client is a victim of the long-running «political persecution» suffered by the former prime minister and his party. «They blame us and put pressure on us,» lamented defense lawyer Babar Awan, before denouncing the humiliation his client was subjected to during the arrest when security forces covered his face with a sheet.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
