ISLAMABAD – Anti-Terrorism Court-II Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra on Friday granted a four-day physical remand of Mustafeen Kazmi to the police at the Federal Judicial Complex in Islamabad for further investigation.
Mustafeen Kazmi, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar, Salman Akram Raja, and others were named in an FIR (463/24) registered on October 2nd after PTI lawyers staged a protest outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad. Twenty lawyers were nominated in the FIR, along with 100 to 120 unidentified persons, under Section 08 of the Unlawful Assembly and Public Order Act 2023, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), Section 11(x) ATA, and five sections of the Pakistan Penal Code. Mustafeen Kazmi was arrested on Thursday night at his residence.
The Investigation Officer requested an eight-day physical remand of the accused for investigation. Prosecutor Raja Naveed Hussain argued that the conduct of the investigation was still pending, which is the vested right of the prosecution. Defence lawyers contended that provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act do not apply to this case. They further argued that Mustafeen Kazmi should be discharged from the case, or at least the request for physical remand should be denied by the court.
After hearing the arguments, Judge Sipra issued a written order stating that, admittedly, the investigation process is necessary to ascertain the veracity of the allegations and the genuineness of the incident. This, the judge noted, is a vested right of the prosecution. The order further stated that the nature of the allegations is highly serious, and the motive as well as the factors behind the incident in front of the apex court have yet to be uncovered through proper investigation. Therefore, the court allowed four-day physical custody of the accused, and the accused must be produced before the court on 08-10-2024.
