LAHORE: A duty judicial magistrate at Model Town courts on Wednesday turned down a plea of PML-N MNA Javed Latif to discharge him in a case of inciting people against the state institutions and sent him to jail on judicial remand.

Earlier, the police produced Latif before the court in an armoured vehicle amid strict security arrangements on expiry of his physical remand.

Hundreds of party workers already gathered outside the courts complex showered rose petals on the vehicle carrying the MNA and chanted slogans in his favour.

Advocate Imtiaz Pahat argued on behalf of the opposition leader that the police failed to collect any cogent evidence against the accused during the physical remand. He asked the magistrate to discharge the accused from the case.

The magistrate observed that the accused was nominated in the FIR with specific allegations against the state institutions and inciting the workers of political parties.

He noted that the request of the counsel to discharge the accused at this stage of the case was not cogent as there was sufficient incriminating material available on record.

The magistrate turned down the request of the counsel and sent Javed Latif to jail on judicial remand since his 14-day physical remand stood completed in the case.

The magistrate directed the jail authorities to produce the MNA on May 26 and also directed the police to submit its challan (investigation report).

The jail superintendent was also directed to decide the applications of the accused as per law about the facilities in the jail he was entitled to being a member of the National Assembly.

Talking to the media, Latif said had Punjab woken up at the time of the fall of Dhaka, the East Pakistan would not have been separated. He claimed the citizens of Punjab had woken up now against injustice and for the supremacy of the Constitution.

PML-N leader Danyal Aziz visited the court to express solidarity with the arrested MNA. He said it was very unfortunate that sitting parliamentarians were being brought to the courts in armoured vehicles.

He said a baseless FIR was registered against Latif on the complainant of a ‘patriot’ after the institutions failed to find any wrong against him.

Township police registered the FIR on the complaint of citizen Jameel Saleem under sections 120/120B, 153/153A, 500, 505(i)(B) and 506 of Pakistan Penal Code. The sections deal with the offences of causing incitement against the state institutions, including the army, and promoting enmity between different groups.

In a television programme, he had said his party would not say “Pakistan Khappay” (long live Pakistan) if anything happened to its vice president Maryam Nawaz. He was arrested on April 27 after a sessions court withdrew his pre-arrest bail.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2021