Fawad 'picked up' in attempt to silence PTI mouthpiece.

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE -- A court in the federal capital sent PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on a two-day physical remand on Wednesday, after he was produced by the Islamabad police before magistrate Naveed Khan in a sedition case, following his arrest from Lahore earlier in the day.

After his arrest on sedition charges, on the complaint of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary lodged at the Kohsar police station, the capital police obtained his transit remand from a judicial magistrate in Lahore and moved him to Islamabad, escorted by a fleet of police mobile vans.

Soon after his arrest, PTI moved a habeas corpus petition before the Lahore High Court seeking Mr Chaudhry's recovery from the 'illegal custody of police'.

The petition, however, was dismissed in the evening and the high court observed that 'prima facie no illegality had been committed in his arrest'.

In Islamabad, before he was produced in the court of Naveed Khan, the PTI leader was taken to Pims to undergo a medical check-up. Wearing a white face mask, footage showed the former minister made a victory sign as two police officials escorted him to the hospital.

After the medical examination, the police produced him in court with his face covered with a white cloth and sought an eight-day physical remand. His brother Faisal Chaudhry, Zulfi Bukhari and others argued before the judge and opposed the physical remand.

Speaking to the judge, Mr Chaudhry said that he was a Supreme Court lawyer and added the police handcuffed him despite the fact that at least '1,500 police personnel were deployed' outside the courtroom. He said the police had also charged him with mutiny and termed the allegations 'baseless'. He said the ECP was not immune from criticism and the registration of such FIRs would endanger democracy in the country.

During the hearing, the ECP counsel read out the contents of the FIR and argued that Mr Chaudhry had ridiculed the ECP, which is a constitutional body. He termed the act part of a 'well-thought out conspiracy' and claimed that 'unknown people wrote threatening letters to the ECP'. The lawyer also offered to share these letters with the judge in his chamber.

The police prosecutor argued that the investigation team required Fawad Chaudhry's custody to match his voice and conduct photogrammetric tests and a forensic examination of his laptop and mobile phone. The defence counsel objected, saying Fawad Chaudhry did not deny the contents of his media talk, which...

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