F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad has rejected the police’s request of extending the physical remand of AML leader Sheikh Rashid and instead send him to jail on judicial remand for 14 days.
Pronouncing the verdict reserved earlier, Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir ordered to send Sheikh Rashid to Adiala Jail on judicial remand, effectively rejecting the prosecutor’s request for a five-day extension in the physical remand.
Later, a court also rejected Karachi Police’s plea for a transition remand to take the Awami Musli League head to Karachi.
Earlier, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was produced in the court in Islamabad after his two-day physical remand was expired.
The AML leader was arrested on Thursday last in connection with a complaint filed by PPP Rawalpindi Vice President Raja Inayat Ur Rehman in Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station for alleging that PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari was hatching a plot to assassinate PTI chief Imran Khan.
Sheikh Rashid was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir on Saturday amid tight security.
The police again requested the court to approve the AML leader’s physical remand for another five days. The police said they had carried out the voice matching test of Sheikh Rashid but photogrammetric test was still to be conducted for which further remand was required.
Sheikh Rashid once again fell on the ground on his way to the courtroom and the police officials helped him to stand on his feet.
The AWL leader urged the court to provide him Rangers security.
4th FIR against AML leader lodged for using foul language against Bilawal
Another case has been registered against Sheikh Rashid Ahmad in Hub for using foul language against PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The FIR was registered with Police Station Barrot Hub on Saturday.
Now, the number of FIRs registered against the AML chief has gone up to 4.
Earlier FIRs were registered against Sh Rashid in Abpara Police Station, Murree and Karachi.
According to FIR, Sheikh Rashid had used foul language against PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at Poly Clinic Hospital. He also allegedly threatened PPP workers on the occasion which caused resentment and enraged party activists.
Court objects to AML leader’s petition
Earlier Sheikh Rashid Ahmed filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court to stop his possible shifting to Karachi and Murree, but the Registrar’s Office raised objection on it.
In the petition, Sheikh Rashid argued that he had quoted PTI chief Imran Khan’s statement accusing PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari of plotting to assassinate him. “The petitioner in cases filed against me is not the affected party,” he added.
The AML leader also prayed the court to order a halt to registration of cases against him based on political blame game. He also urged the court to quash cases lodged against him at Aabpara Police Station in Islamabad, Murree and Karachi.
Sheikh Rashid also urged the court to order shifting of the case in Karachi to Islamabad or declare it “misuse of power”.
Sheikh Rashid, who made IGPs of Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab, and interior secretary as respondents, also urged the court to stop the authorities for handing over to Karachi until the cases is decided here.
Sheikh Rashid fears he will be killed in Karachi, claims nephew
Awami Muslim League Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad’s nephew has claimed that his uncle expressed his fear that he was being taken to Karachi where he would be killed.
Talking to media on Saturday, Rashid’s nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq said that his uncle was not in any police station in Islamabad.
“Sh Rashid is not in Aabpara police station or Police Secretariat. We met him at Police Secretariat yesterday. But after our meeting, they put him in a vehicle and shifted him somewhere,” he added.
Shafiq said that his uncle told him that police used to blindfold him and take him with them. He claimed that Karachi police was also present in the federal capital at this time.
He further claimed that Sh Rashid delivered him a message that he was being shifted to Karachi where he would be killed.
In his message, Sh Rashid said that if anything happened to him, then an FIR should be registered against Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Rana Sanaullah, the nephew added.
Former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was booked on charges of provocation to cause riots and criminal intimidation for passing ‘extremely filthy’ remarks against PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
According to the FIR, registered by Karachi’s Moachko police, PPP’s senior vice president at PS-112 and Soomar Goth resident Khuda Bux alleged that Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed hatched a conspiracy to create a law and order situation and trigger violence and bloodshed by using ‘extremely filthy and immoral language’ against Mr Bhutto-Zardari during his interaction with the media at the Polyclinic Hospital in the capital.
