ISLAMABAD: A local court on Tuesday granted Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) three-day physical remand of former prime minister Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) Sardar Tanveer Ilyas in a case of misuse of diplomatic passport.
The officials of FIA produced AJK’s former premier before civil judge Abbas Shah for obtaining his physical remand in a case registered against him for keeping his diplomatic passport after stepping down from the position of premier.
Ilyas’s legal team advocates Sabir Malik and Naveed Raza Mughal appeared before the court.
The agency requested the court to hand over Ilyas on physical remand to recover his diplomatic passport as he did not return it and also misused it after leaving the post.
The FIA prosecutor told the court that former premier AJK had violated the law and used his diplomatic passport to travel to Saudi Arabia after leaving office, which is illegal.
His [Ilyas] diplomatic passport had been canceled, yet he had failed to return it, he said.
He requested the court to grant an eight-day physical remand to recover the diplomatic passport, but the court granted only a 3-day physical remand for further investigation.
The defence counsel, while objecting to the prosecution’s request, said that his client is a former prime minister; therefore, he can use the diplomatic passport.
He requested the court to reject the FIA’s request.
The court, after hearing arguments, granted FIA three-day physical remand of AJK’s former prime minister.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024