An additional sessions court in Islamabad on Wednesday approved the bail application of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, who was arrested from outside his Lahore residence on Jan. 25.
Additional Sessions Judge Faizan Gillani approved the former minister’s bail plea, setting a surety bond of Rs. 20,000, while cautioning Fawad from voicing similar remarks in the future. The PTI leader is facing sedition and incitement charges over a media talk last week in which he had publicly “threatened” the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and their family members.
During today’s hearing, Fawad’s lawyer Babar Awan asked the court to approve the bail of his client. The judge initially asked Awan to read out the charges against his client before asking him to explain what Fawad had meant when he threatened the family members of the ECP officials.
“Do you [Awan] know what the literacy rate in Pakistan is? When a political leader speaks such words, do you know what it can lead to?” he asked and reminded the lawyer that PTI Chairman Imran Khan had said similar remarks about his colleague Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry. “Yes, I had resolved that issue as well,” Awan told the judge.
In his arguments, the prosecutor said Fawad’s bail should be rejected as he had threatened officials of the ECP and called them “peons.” He argued that Fawad’s statements had sought to incite the public against the ECP, adding he had also declared it “mandatory to revolt” during a live TV appearance. He said all this was documented evidence that was available with police.
The ECP’s lawyer, Saad Hassan, meanwhile said that the PTI leader’s photogrammetric and voice match tests had been conducted while he was in custody. To this, the judge questioned their need when Fawad had already accepted that he had issued these statements. “Fawad Chaudhry can retract his earlier statement during the trial. We don’t need to interrogate his statement further as he has accepted that he made the statement,” replied the lawyer, adding that further investigations could be conducted at any point in the case going forward.
Reiterating that Fawad should not have issued such remarks, the judge approved his conditional bail, with the PTI hailing the development as a victory for their leader.