Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Islamabad: A court in Pakistan on Thursday reserved the verdict on the police's plea seeking a 30-day remand for Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vice chairman of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party in connection with the May 9 attack on military headquarters, according to media report.
The development comes a day after the 67-year-old former foreign minister was manhandled by police officials as they re-arrested him outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, a step termed “illegal” by him and his party ahead of general elections on February 8.
Thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters stormed military and government installations across the country following Khan's arrest in an alleged corruption case on May 9 here this year. Since then, Khan and scores of PTI workers have faced multiple cases for attacking military installations and government buildings.
On Thursday, appearing before Duty Magistrate Syed Jahangir Ali, Prosecution lawyer Akram Amin pleaded to the court for the PTI leader's remand saying that a remand of up to 90 days can be given in a terrorism case, The News International reported.
The newspaper quoted the prosecutor as saying that they have taken reports from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and intelligence agencies on the May 9 violence.
Presenting the video statement and Qureshi's tweets as evidence, the prosecution lawyer said Qureshi issued a protest call on his social media handle during the riots that broke out following the arrest of the PTI founder Khan in a corruption case earlier in May this year.
Stating that the protest calls were irrefutable evidence that it was an attack on institutions, the prosecutor maintained: “We have to see what elements were behind the call for protest. We have irrefutable evidence in the light of which the arrest is made.”
Qureshi’s lawyer Malik Imran told the court that there is no word mentioned in the report or in the PTI leader’s speech based on which a case could be filed against his client and said the FIR’s copy was not present in the entire challan.
“After hearing the arguments, the court reserved its verdict on police’s plea seeking 30-day remand of Qureshi in the GHQ attack case related to May 9 mayhem,” the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, deposing before the duty magistrate, Qureshi claimed he was “tortured mentally and physically as well as kept in harshest cold weather” for the past few months.
Qureshi also said he would swear on the Holy Quran that he was not present in Rawalpindi on May 9 and instead, he was in Karachi that day.
“I was with my wife in the Aga Khan Hospital. Get a record from PEMRA, I was present in Karachi,” the newspaper quoted Qureshi as saying.