KARACHI: The administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts on Monday remanded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker Firdous Shamim Naqvi in police custody in two May 9 violence cases.

MPA Naqvi, along with other workers, has been booked for allegedly staging violent protests on Sharea Faisal, blocking the thoroughfare, resorting to rioting and causing damage to government and private property following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on the premises of the Islamabad High Court on May 9.

The investigating officers submitted that the PTI MPA was detained on Sunday for holding violent protests and instigating party workers to damage public and private property. They sought his custody for further questioning.

However, defence lawyers Zahoor Masood and others opposed physical custody and argued that the protests were peaceful.

The administrative judge handed over the MPA to police on two-day physical remand.

Remand of 25 activists extended

The police also produced on Monday around 25 detained party workers before the administrative judge of the ATCs after the end of their five-day physical remand and pleaded for extension in their custody for further investigation.

The administrative judge granted two-day extension in their physical remand. The workers have been booked and arrested in cases registered at the Ferozabad and Tipu Sultan police stations regarding violent protests on Sharea Faisal.

Moreover, police brought 73-year-old Abdul Hameed and his son Huzaifa before the same court and asked the court for their custody.

The IO contended that the suspects were involved in torching a Rangers’ check post on Sharea Faisal near Nursery during May 9 violent protest and they were apprehended after a video of the incident had gone viral on social media in which suspect Hameed was seen uttering adverse remarks against the military leadership over the arrest of the PTI chief.

The administrative judge remanded the duo in police custody.

Notices issued on a plea seeking Ali Zaidi’s whereabouts

The Sindh High Court on Monday issued notices to the government and police authorities as well as other respondents in a petition seeking whereabouts of senior PTI leader and provincial president Ali Haider Zaidi.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto also asked the home secretary, inspector general of police, director general of Rangers and others to file comments by the next hearing.

The court put the advocate general, prosecutor general and deputy attorney general on notice for a date to be fixed after two weeks.

Yasmeen Ali Zaidi, wife of the PTI leader, petitioned the SHC stating that her husband was picked by police on May 9 near Kalapul, but was yet to be produced before any court of law.

She submitted that the whereabouts of PTI’s provincial chief were still unknown and pleaded for his recovery.

Meanwhile, another bench of SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial on Monday restrained the police from arresting the Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh till May 19.

A son of Mr Sheikh approached the SHC and the bench said the lawyer for the petitioner expressed the apprehension that PTI leader, who has not been specifically nominated, may be arrested in the FIRs in which nobody had been named apart from workers of PTI.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023