LAHORE: A Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) leader was remanded on Tuesday in the case of inciting people against the chief justice, while the prime instigator, Pir Zaheerul Hassan Shah, remains at large days after his controversial speech.

Maulana Muhammad Tahir Saifi, who was arrested after Shah’s speech went viral, has been remanded into police custody for seven days.

Saifi was presented before Judge Khalid Arshad of the anti-terrorism court, where the investigating officer played a video of his speech delivered last week.

The judge sought confirmation from the TLP leader, asking if this was his speech, to which Saifi replied in affirmative.

The judge further asked the TLP leader why he was railing against the CJP.

“We are advising the chief justice to be cautious. The decision of the Supre­­me Court is against the Con­­stitution. There is still time for the CJP to reconsi­der his decision,” Saifi said.

This was a reference to a decision, delivered by the apex court on July 24, which accepted a Punjab government plea to review its verdict in the Mubarak Sani case.

The investigating officer informed the court that since the suspect’s photogrammetric test was to be conducted on and a microphone needed to be recovered, his physical remand was necessary.

The judge allowed police a seven-day physical remand of the suspect and with a direction to produce him again in the ATC on Aug 6.

Two other TLP leaders have been arrested in Okara with several FIRs registered against the party’s leaders and workers across the country since Shah, the party’s deputy emir, issued a call for “violence against Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa” during a rally outside the Lahore Press Club, on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2024