ISLAMABAD: A local court, on Saturday, granted police two-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi in a case registered against him in connection with May 9 protest demonstrations. The police produced Afridi before judicial magistrate Naveed Khan for obtaining his physical remand. At the start of the hearing, the investigation officer (IO) of the case requested the court to grant five-day physical remand of the accused in order to conduct a further investigation of him. He told the court that the custody of the accused is required for conducting a photogrammetry test and voice matching.

Afridi’s counsel Sher Afzal Marwat, while arguing before the court, opposed the IO’s request. If they obtained videos of Afridi from social media then there is no need of conducting of photogrammetry test, he said.

During the hearing, Afridi came to the rostrum and said that his brother died but he was not allowed to attend his funeral prayer. Staging a protest is his constitutional right but he did not take the law into his hand, he said.

The court after hearing the arguments reserved its verdict on Afridi’s physical remand. The court allowed Afridi to meet with his family inside the court following the request of his counsel.

Later, the court while announcing its reserved judgment, granted police two-day physical remand of Afridi. When he was asked outside the court that you jailed Interior Minister are you think that he is doing all this?, he said that he wants to clarify that he had not put Rana Sanaullah behind the bar. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) had arrested Sanuallah on the basis of an intelligence report and they had evidence against him, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023