LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition against physical remand of five accused in the Kasur child abuse scandal.

The counsel for Akhtar Ali Sherazi’s wife stated that an anti-terrorism court on Aug 11 remanded five accused in police custody for 28 days. She alleged that police arrested them on allegations of hurling threats to the victimised children.

The counsel argued that though minor offence was attributed to the accused in the FIR, the trial court granted extended physical remand unnecessarily.

He asked the court to reduce the remand, alleging that police had already killed an accused in a fake encounter. Therefore, he said, lives of the accused were at risk.

The bench headed by Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq dismissed the petition and observed that proceedings of the trial court could not be intervened at the stage of investigation.

The other four accused are Muhammad Yahya, Waseem Abid, Aleem Asif and Attiqur Rehman.

Qasim Zia: PPP’s senior leader Qasim Zia on Tuesday approached the Lahore High Court for post-arrest bail in the stock exchange fraud.

Barrister Syed Ali Zafar filed a petition on behalf of the arrested leader and denied charges of fraud against his client.

The counsel said Mr Zia had already left the company -- Ali Usman Brokerage -- when it committed the alleged fraud.

He said NAB officials obtained physical remand of his client up to 16 days but failed to establish his involvement in the case. He asked the court to release his client on bail.

Qasim Zia’s judicial remand was extended by 14 days by an accountability court on Monday.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2015

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