A district and sessions court in the federal capital has sent Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid — a close aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) Chairman Imran Khan — on judicial remand for 14 days.
The former interior minister is facing serious charges as he levelled allegations against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for plotting to assassinate Khan.
PPP Rawalpindi Division President Raja Inayat Ur Rehman had filed a case against Rashid at Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station. Three sections — 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) — are included in the FIR.
The Islamabad Police presented the AML chief in the court of Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir amid strict security, upon the completion of his two-day physical remand.
The ex-interior minister is also facing charges in Muree and Karachi. A case has been lodged against him in Muree for threatening police personnel, while he has been named in two separate FIRs for passing “offensive” and “filthy” comments against Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
Meanwhile, the district and sessions court will hear the former interior minister’s plea for bail on Monday (February 6).
At the outset of the hearing, the police sought a five-day extension in Rashid’s physical remand.
The investigation officer informed the court that voice-matching tests had been done and the photogrammetry test was left.
Meanwhile, Rashid maintained: “It’d be better I be sentenced to death the way police have kept [me]”.
He complained that the police kept him blindfolded and tied to a chair for hours.
The politician pleaded to the court to order the authorities to take him to a hospital to bandage his injuries and grant him Rangers’ security.
At this, the court ordered to uncuff Rashid.
Meanwhile, Rashid’s lawyer started his arguments, saying that the sections imposed in the case against his client weren’t valid.
He argued that Rashid was sent into police custody for two days for investigation but was “tortured at night”.
Later, the court reserved its verdict on the police’s plea for an extension in Rashid’s physical remand. It also gave the transcript of Rashid’s interview to his lawyer.
After the Karachi police filed a second case against Rashid, the ex-interior minister filed a plea in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) through his lawyer Sardar Abdul Razzaq Khan. Rashid sought restraining orders against his transfer from the federal capital to Karachi.
“The respondents be restrained from shifting the petitioner from Islamabad to Karachi till the final disposal of the instant constitutional petition,” the plea stated.
The petitioner also requested the court to quash the case registered at Aabpara Police Station in Islamabad after declaring it as “illegal, unlawful and without lawful authority”, and restrict the respondents from lodging more cases against him.
Moreover, the FIRs registered at Murree and Karachi should “be declared as illegal, unlawful, result of abuse of powers and misuse of authority or in the alternate”.
The petition also requested the court that the case registered in Karachi “be ordered to be shifted to Islamabad in accordance with section 234, 235 and 239 of Cr.P.C where the case was already registered”.
