KARACHI, June 23: The judicial magistrate, South, on Saturday extended the remand of a civil rights campaigner, Syed Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi, till July 7.

He was arrested by police on June 12 at his Korangi residence in what the police described as cases of cheating and issuing dud cheques to people in different business deals last year.

He is facing charges in five cases registered by police in the Daraskhshan and Al-Falah police stations in 2006. His defence counsel Naheed Afzaal said he was to be produced before the judicial magistrate, South, Zulfiqar Ali, but since the JM was not present in his court, the suspect was produced before the link court of the JM (South), Khushi Mohammad.

An application for his bail would be filed on the next date of hearing, said the lawyer, adding that he was being victimised for the petitions he had filed in the Sindh High Court against leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the amended Pemra ordinance.

“Had he committed the crime he is accused of, the police would have arrested him a year ago, as he is an ordinary person and has no influential background,” the attorney argued.

The accused claimed that he had evidence about the involvement of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement which, he said, he planned to give to Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan.