ISLAMABAD :An Islamabad judicial magistrate on Sunday remanded PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur into police custody for a day in a terrorism case related to threatening the government and national institutions.
Gandapur, a former federal minister and PTI’s central leader, was arrested on Thursday night outside the building of the Peshawar High Court’s Dera Ismail Khan bench — on charges of two criminal cases registered against him by the D.I. Khan police — after an hours-long drama and sent to the central jail on a six-day judicial remand.
On Saturday, the Islamabad and Punjab police from Bhakar reached Dera Ismail Khan and took the PTI leader to Islamabad.
The first information report (FIR) registered against Gandapur mentions an audio leak, in which he could purportedly be heard using derogatory language against the federal coalition.
Earlier today, Gandapur was presented before Duty Magistrate Naveed Khan. Footage from outside the court showed the PTI leader being escorted by the police while his head was covered with a cloth.
The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, the government lawyer read out loud the charges against the PTI leader, saying that Gandapur’s remarks had created fear among the institutions. “The charges against him are very serious.
“He talked about taking over Islamabad and using weapons,” the lawyer stated, adding that the PTI leader deserved to be sent to jail for life for such comments.
On the other hand, Gandapur’s lawyer Babar Awan argued that the accusations against Gandapur were “baseless” and questioned the veracity of the audio clip attributed to him.
