ISLAMABAD 17 June (Online): Session court Islamabad granted two-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shehryar Afridi to police over May 09 incident case.
He was arrested under 3-MPO (section 3-Maintenance of Public Order) Ordinance from his Islamabad residence.
The law introduced in 1960 by then martial law administration Ayub Khan, that enable government to arrest any person and is a tool of almost every democratic government to suppress their opposition.
Afridi was arrested shortly after his release from Rawalpindi prison under the same MPO law, in which city police officer accused him of ‘instigating/planning to organise unlawful assembly, commit violence, deliver unlawful speeches to cause damages to human life and public/private properties.
Judge Naveed Khan presided over the hearing today while Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat appeared as Afridi’s counsel.
At the outset of the hearing, the investigation officer sought Afridi’s five-day physical remand, saying that his photogrammetric and voice-matching tests were yet to be conducted.
At this, Afridi’s counsel objected to the request: “Shehryar Afridi’s videos were obtained from social media. Hence, a photogrammetric test is not needed.”
Advocate Marwat then proceeded to request the court that his client be allowed to meet his family, to which the court accepted the request and let Afridi’s family meet him in the courtroom on the occasion.
At this point during the hearing, Afridi came on the rostrum, visibly emotional.
“My brother passed away but I was not allowed to attend his funeral,” he lamented.
The PTI leader recalled that he had “given lectures in universities and colleges on patriotism”. He asserted that it was his Constitutional right to protest and argued that he had not taken the law into his own hands.
The judge subsequently reserved his verdict on the matter, which he announced later by granting the police a two-day physical remand of Afridi.
Responding to questions if he would be “holding a press conference” — a reference to leaving the PTI — Afridi averted giving a direct answer.
Upon being asked by a reporter if the current government was avenging the 2019 arrest of incumbent Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah during the previous PTI government — when Afridi was the state minister for interior — the PTI leader denied the allegations of him being behind Sanaullah’s arrest.
“The head of the Anti-Narcotics Force is [a] major [or] general. ANF had arrested him on the basis of intelligence reports. They had all the [evidence] against Rana Sanaullah,” Afridi asserted.
On the matter of numerous party leaders leaving the PTI, he said, “Will not say anything about those who left the party and went. Only God knows the circumstances under which they left the party and the reasons behind it.
“These trials come [in life]. May God make us all esteemed,” he added.
Follow the PNI Facebook page for the latest news and updates.
