RAWALPINDI: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday granted police five-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi in the GHQ attack case.

Police produced Afridi before ATC judge Hamid Hussain for obtaining his physical remand in the GHQ attack case. The court handed over Afridi to the police on five-day physical remand in a case registered against him at RA Bazaar police station.

A local court in Islamabad on June 20 granted bail to Afridi against the surety bonds of Rs100,000 in a case registered against him at the Industrial Area police station in connection with May 9 demonstrations.

The PTI Afridi filed the post-arrest bail petition through counsel Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat. Afridi was arrested by the city police on May 16 from his Islamabad residence under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, which enables the government to arrest any person.

On May 30, he was rearrested shortly after his release from a Rawalpindi prison under the same MPO law, with the city police officer accusing Afridi of “instigating/planning to organize unlawful assembly/commit violence, deliver unlawful speeches to cause damage to human life and public/private properties”.

Despite the Islamabad High Court (IHC) overruling his detention orders on June 6, Afridi was being kept in a death cell at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, following which the IHC warned the capital police officials of contempt proceedings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023