KARACHI: A local court on Mon­day remanded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter president Ali Haider Zaidi in police custody for three days in a decade-old fraud case.

Judicial magistrate (Malir) Ahmed Ali also dismissed an application filed by the defence counsel seeking his acquittal and directed the investigating officer to produce the PTI leader again after the end of his physical remand along with a progress report on April 20.

Mr Zaidi was picked up by police on April 15 from PTI’s office in Defence for alleged fraud and threatening property dealer and complainant Fazal Ilahi.

When he was brought to the court in an armoured personnel carrier amid tight security, several PTI leaders along with a number of party workers present on the court premises chanted slogans for his release.

Ex-Sindh governor vows to challenge arrest before SHC

While talking to media persons on court premises, former governor and PTI leader Imran Ismail said it was a ‘forged case’ and they would approach the Sindh High Court to seek justice.

Earlier at the hearing, Sub-inspector Ghulam Mustafa Shar, investigating officer in the case, asked the magistrate for physical remand of Mr Zaidi for further questioning and verification of documents involved in the case as well as for arrest of unidentified accomplices of the suspect.

When the magistrate inquired about maltreatment at the hands of police, Mr Zaidi replied in the negative but expressed apprehension that he would be falsely implicated in other cases too. He also complained that the police had arrested him on April 15 but did not produce him before any court until April 17.

The IO and prosecutor, however, produced the memo of arrest indicating that the suspect was arrested at 12.45am on April 16 and claimed that he was produced before the court within 24 hours as per law.

The lawyers representing Mr Zaidi moved an application asking the magistrate to discharge the PTI leader under Section 63 (discharge of person apprehended) of the criminal procedure code. They argued that the allegations were fabricated on the basis of doctored documents as the suspect was out of Pakistan on the day of said incident. They said there was a delay of around 10 years in FIR registration while nothing had been brought on record to show that the complainant had approached any forum during this period for the recovery of such a huge amount.

The district prosecutor and the counsel for the complainant, however, argued that provision of Section 63 was limited to the extent of ‘illegal custody or unjustified arrest’, while in the present case, the suspect had been nominated by the complainant in the FIR.

While rejecting the argument that it was a politically motivated case, they said the dispute was between the two parties and the complainant being aggrieved person approached the court for justice after he found that the plot documents provided by the suspect were forged.

The magistrate in its order said, “Heard and perused the record, it reveals that applicant/accused is nominated in the FIR with specific role and allegations. Tentatively, it established that there is transaction of huge amount of about Rs170m bet­ween the complainant and the acc­used and the accused was arrested on the pointation of complainant”.

The order stated that the lawyer for complainant produced sale agreement dated March 15, 2013, lease document and pay order showing PTI leader’s nexus with the commission of offence. “Prima facie accusation against the accused made out and material available on record justify the arrest of the accused in the FIR,” it added.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023