Islamabad (Web Desk): A local court in Islamabad on Saturday sent Awami Muslim League (AML) leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to jail on judicial remand in a case for allegedly making defamatory remarks against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership.
The AML leader was presented in the court upon the completion of his two-day physical remand granted on Thursday.
He was presented before the court of Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir amid strict security, where the police requested the court for another five-day physical remand of the AML chief along with a photogrammetric test.
Ahmed’s lawyers Abdul Razzaq Khan and Intizar Panjhota asked for all cases to be dismissed.
During the hearing, Sheikh Rashid alleged that the "police had tied his hands and feet" and asked the court to provide him with Rangers’ security. Criticizing the police's treatment, the former minister said it is better to give him a “death sentence”.
The investigation officer informed the court that tests of the AML chief have been conducted However, the photogrammetric test is yet to be done.
Sheikh Rashid's counsel Sardar Abdul Razzaq in his arguments said that the provisions imposed do not apply to his client.
"Sheikh Rashid was “tortured at night,” the lawyer said, adding that the police were given a two-day physical remand for investigation, but they “tortured” the former minister.
Opposing the police’s request for an extension in physical remand, the Rashid's lawyer stated that a two-day remand was given for investigation in the same case.
"The case is “made on political basis”, he said adding that an extension in physical remand is being sought to “make Rashid a target of political revenge”.
The lawyer then pleaded to discharge Rashid from the case.
Sheikh Rashid' second lawyer, Intezar Panjoota, in arguments said that since the case is ongoing in the high court, an extension in physical remand cannot be given.
Opposing all three provisions imposed in the case against the AML chief, Panjoota argued that giving additional “physical remand of Sheikh Rashid will be illegal”.
The lawyer argued that the prosecution should be asked about the progress in the investigation during the two-day physical remand.
Earlier on Saturday, the AML chief filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to bar the police from shifting him to Karachi from Islamabad and to nullify the cases registered against him in the Sindh's capital and and Murree.
Islamabad police had arrested Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in the early hours of Thursday in connection with remarks he allegedly made against former president Asif Ali Zardari.
Sheikh Rashid was arrested on a complaint filed by Raja Inayat-ur-Rehman, a vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in a television interview on Jan 27, alleged that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari got the assistance of some terrorist to kill Imran Khan.
Three sections — 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) — have been added to the FIR.
Imran Khan in a television address on Jan 27 had alleged that Zardari was behind a fresh assassination plot — a “plan C” — and a terror group had been engaged for the purpose. He offered no evidence to back up his accusation.