LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a notice to the man suspected to have attacked Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan in Wazirabad, on a petition of the Punjab prosecutor general challenging the denial of a 30-day physical remand of the suspect by the trial court.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Gujranwala had on Nov 17 granted the police 12-day custody of the suspect, Muhammad Naveed, with a direction to the investigating officer to produce him again on Nov 29.

Representing the prosecution department before the LHC, Additional Prosecutor General Rai Akhtar Hussain said the joint investigation team, created to probe into the incident, asked the trial court for a 30-day remand of the suspect. However, he said, the court allowed a 12-day remand only.

He argued that the decision of the trial court was against the law and liable to be set aside, as under the last amendment introduced to Section 21-E of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 in 2013, the minimum period for one-time police remand was determined for not less than 15 days and maximum 90 days.

He said the trial court failed to appreciate the relevant provision of Section 21-E(1) of the ATA and did not apply its judicial mind passing the impugned order denying the maximum remand to the police.

After hearing the arguments of the prosecutor, a two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural issued a notice to the respondent/suspect for Jan 18, 2023.

PTI chief Imran Khan and at least 14 others, including party leaders, had received bullet injuries when the PTI’s long march was attacked allegedly by the suspect while passing through Wazirabad. One participant of the march was killed during the attack.

Naveed was caught red-handed from the crime scene along with the weapon he used.

Wazirabad City police registered the first information report under sections 302, 324, 440 of the PPC and Section 7 of the ATA.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022