PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry was apprehended from his residence shortly after he publicly censured the government and the election commission. The Islamabad police have confirmed the arrest was made in Lahore on their behalf.
Earlier, Fawad Chaudhry’s wife Hiba alleged that her husband had been ‘kidnapped’ by policemen from the family’s home in Lahore.
A case against Chaudhary was registered on 24 January at the Kohsar police station in Islamabad, on the complaint of the secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Omer Hamid Khan. The first information report (FIR) was lodged against Fawad Chaudhry for making verbal threats against the ECP and its commission members in a public speech to media last night.
According to the FIR, Chaudhry has been charged under sections 153-A (“promotion of enmity between groups”), 506 (criminal intimidation), 505 (public mischief) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR also stated that Chaudhary had said that the status of the ECP was reduced to that of a “munshi” or clerk.
In an aggressive speech outside Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore yesterday, Chaudhry had warned the incumbent government, the Punjab and KP governors, the Punjab caretaker chief minister, and specifically the ECP’s commissioners and their families.
Fawad Chaudhry said that those who became part of the caretaker government “will be pursued until they are punished”, adding that people sitting in the government will be “pursued to their homes”.
Fawad Chaudhry’s arrest comes after frantic PTI workers rushed to party chairman Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore to prevent his anticipated arrest.
