Fearing police torture, Fawad Chaudhry files plea for medical test

• Fawad says police not conducting medical test is violation of constitutional rights.
• Sources say PTI leader moved to Lahore. 
• Fawad's photogrammetry test will be carried out in Lahore: sources.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry Sunday submitted a petition to the Kohsar Police Station's magistrate for his medical examination.

In his petition, the PTI leader said that the federal police are not conducting his medical test which is a violation of constitutional rights.

It added that the police had mentally and physically tortured PTI leaders Senator Azam Khan Swati and Shahbaz Gill. 

"The police might do the same as they did in the past and this is why they are not conducting my medical," he added.

The former federal information minister urged the court to take immediate notice of the violation of orders.

As per the sources, the Islamabad Police have shifted Fawad to Lahore. The police sources added that his photogrammetry test will be carried out in Lahore.

They said that his voice will be matched in the forensic laboratory.

A day earlier, a local court in the federal capital sent Fawad on a two-day physical remand in a sedition case filed against him by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja announced the verdict after — earlier in the day — a district and sessions court accepted the Islamabad Police's petition overturning a decision that sent the former minister on judicial remand and rejected Fawad's plea to discharge him from the case.

In the order issued Saturday, the judicial magistrate ordered the Islamabad Police to produce the former federal information minister before his court on Monday (January 30) upon the expiry of his remand.

Fawad — who is facing sedition charges for publicly “threatening” the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a media talk — was arrested from his Lahore residence on Wednesday after a case was registered against him at the Kohsar Police Station.

He was presented before the court on Friday after the expiry of his physical remand, however, the prosecution’s request for an extension was turned down by Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja. Later, the decision was overturned by the session court.

'Banana republic'

Taking notice of today’s incident, PTI Chairman Imran Khan lashed out at the authorities and said that the manner in which Fawad was presented before the court was proof of the government’s “vindictiveness".

Referring to the current government and its leaders as “pharaohs”, Khan also underscored the treatment meted out to PTI leaders Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill as proof that the country was in disarray.

In his series of tweets, the PTI chief stated: “Taking Fawad to court handcuffed and head/face covered like a terrorist shows the low and vindictive levels [the] imported government and state have reached.

"The treatment of Fawad and Azam Swati and Gill before him leaves no doubt in people’s mind that now we are a banana republic," the ex-prime minister, who was ousted last April, said.

Khan further added: “The law of the jungle now prevails where might is right & the Constitution & law of the land have been totally subjugated by the Pharaohs of today.”