Title: PTI's Fawad Chaudhry released from jail following court orders
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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Fawad Chaudhry was released from prison on Wednesday evening after an additional sessions court granted bail to him in a sedition case.
The bail was granted against a surety bond of Rs20,000.
“I said in court as well. I stand by all that I said, and I will not back down,” the PTI leader said upon his release, surrounded by PTI workers gathered outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to welcome him.
Fawad thanked PTI members as well as leaders from other political parties who had spoken up against his arrest.
To a question, he responded that he had never spoken against the institutions, of which he is the biggest supporter.
“I never talk against the institutions. I am the biggest supporter of our institutions, and I never said anything against them. That is why I reiterate that whatever I said was right," he said.
Read Fawad Chaudhry: From pragmatism to populism
The PTI leader lambasted officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) who had suggested to the chief election commissioner to file a sedition case against him.
The PTI leader said that his party had time and again brought up the issue of terrorism in the past six months, but to no avail. He said that it was the need of the hour that all political parties and stakeholders united against the scourge of terrorism.
“If we keep going with the policy of ‘minus him or her’, we will go nowhere. Pakistan needs unity. We need to move forward with the policy of 'plus-everyone' and take everyone along in solving the issues being faced by the country,” he said.
He said Pakistan was going through difficult times, and that the only solution was holding general elections in the country.
Earlier, Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Haider Gilani presided over the hearing where the PTI leader’s counsel, Babar Awan, appeared before the court. During the hearing, Judge Gilani remarked that he is granting bail on the condition that Fawad would not repeat the conversation again.
Moreover, during the hearing, the ECP and the prosecution opposed Fawad’s bail and pleaded for the rejection of the bail plea.
Earlier this week, an Islamabad district and sessions court had ordered Fawad’s medical report to be submitted amid fears of custodial torture.
The police were granted a further two-day physical remand of the former minister last week, reversing the earlier decision of a judicial magistrate, who had rejected the police plea and sent him on judicial remand to Adiala Jail.
Fawad was arrested from Lahore on January 25 for allegedly “inciting violence” against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members and the chief election commissioner (CEC).
Read More Sedition complaint lodged against Ali Gandapur
An FIR was registered against the PTI leader at the Kohsar police station in Islamabad. An Islamabad court then handed Fawad over to the police on a two-day physical remand.
As the remand ended two days later, Fawad was produced before Judicial Magistrate Raja who had extended his physical remand by another two days.
Following the arrest, PTI chief Imran Khan penned a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial seeking his intervention for the protection of "fundamental rights" in Fawad's case.
Published Date: 01-Feb-2023
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