ISLAMABAD: A local court on Monday handed over the custody of retired Lt Gen Amjad Shuaib to the Ramna Police in a case registered against him for offences related to creating public mischief and inciting the public against institutions.

According to the FIR, Gen Shuaib during a talk show broadcast by BOL TV recently sugges­ted that the opposition should issue a call for the government employees to boycott their legal duties.

It said Mr Shuaib tried to incite the public and government employees against the institutions and was promoting enmity between different groups.

Adnan Ali, Deputy District Prosecutor of Islamabad, contended before the court that all the offences invoked in the FIR were cognisabe and non-bailable.

Analyst Amjad Shuaib’s lawyer terms arrest ‘classic example’ of abuse of process of law

He sought seven-day physical remand for “voice matching test from Islamabad” and “photogr­a­m­metric test from Punjab Foren­sic Science Academy Lahore”.

Gen Shuaib and his counsel opposed the request for physical remand.

His counsel argued that the suspect being an analyst has every right to criticise the government and termed his arrest a “classic example of abuse of process of law”.

He said Gen Shuaib was expressing “his personal honest opinion”, adding “if the magistrate thinks no offence is made out [then] he is under obligation to discharge the accused”.

According to the defence counsel, the FIR was based on mala fide intent as the complainant might have watched so many TV shows like the one in question, but he had never lodged any FIR.

During the proceedings, Civil Judge Mohammad Abbas Shah observed that prima facie it was the first request for physical rem­and of a suspect involved in a case having non-bailable offences.

He said “physical remand of the accused doesn’t amount to conviction; rather, it gives reasonable time to the prosecution to investigate the matter”.

He granted the police three-day physical remand of Gen Shuaib and directed them to produce him before the court on March 2.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2023