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A Lahore district and sessions court on Friday sent anchorperson Imran Riaz, who was arrested last night, to jail in a corruption case.<\/p>\n
Riaz was arrested late last night from his home, with visuals of the arrest going viral on social media. The PTI has decried the arrest and called for Riaz\u2019s immediate release.<\/p>\n
Riaz was presented before Judicial Magistrate Imran Abid by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). According to the ACE, Riaz and his father have been accused of securing a contract pertaining to Dharabi Lake in Chakwal at an inflated price.<\/p>\n
The first information report (FIR) registered against Riaz, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com,<\/em> invoked Sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 161 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect to an official act) and 162 (taking gratification, in order by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code. It also invoked Section 5(2)47 (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention Of Corruption Act, 1947.<\/p>\n During the hearing, the ACE sought a 14-day physical remand of Riaz.<\/p>\n One of Riaz\u2019s lawyers, Rana Maroof, said that the case filed against his client was against the law and false. He maintained that Riaz\u2019s father never served as a government official.<\/p>\n Maroof argued that Riaz had not caused harm to the national treasury. \u201cImran Riaz was arrested like a terrorist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Advocate Azhar Siddique, Riaz\u2019s other lawyer, said that the anti-corruption authorities had neither evidence nor any documents to prove the allegations against his client.<\/p>\n During the hearing, Riaz said: \u201cThese people came to my house. I surrendered to them. I told them not to enter my home. They made me sit in the car and then entered my home. They searched my home for 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n He asserted that authorities were lying about the contract in question. \u201cThe previous contract was Rs11 million. We took this contract for an upwards of Rs4m,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said that handcuffs were being slapped on his wrists in order to \u201cpay salute to the queen\u201d \u2014 an apparent reference to PML-N\u2019s Maryam Nawaz, who has been nominated by the party for the slot of provincial chief minister.<\/p>\n \u201cThe queen is being made the chief minister after stealing the people\u2019s votes,\u201d he said. He called on authorities to show a single legal document which highlighted any form of corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat upsets me is the fact that my father has been called corrupt,\u201d Riaz said, adding that his father was an honest man. He asked for his father to be removed from the first information report.<\/p>\n Riaz said that he had great hope from the judiciary, adding that he would continue to fight the \u201ccorrupt mafia\u201d.<\/p>\n The anchorperson further stated that he had \u201cborne all the cruelty\u201d on his own. \u201cIf I am stuttering again today it is because my father was called corrupt,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe institutions and their people are my own even if they beat me [\u2026] these are people from the ACE and they are doing their jobs,\u201d Riaz said. \u201cIf they arrest me today, it is possible that some other people will meet me [in custody] and torture me.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I will bear that cruelty as well,\u201d he told the court, recalling that his wife begged those who arrested him last night and kept asking why the anchorperson was being arrested. \u201cI myself didn\u2019t know why they were arresting me and who they were,\u201d Riaz added.<\/p>\n He went on to say that he had surrendered himself but requested the authorities to not enter his house. \u201cYet, they entered my home and I don\u2019t know what they did there,\u201d Riaz said.<\/p>\n He also expressed hope that the country would recover one day, adding that Pakistan \u201cwill not stay like this forever\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of my journalist friends tell me to leave the country and purchase property abroad. But I tell them that I will stay in Pakistan as long as l am alive. Whatever I earned was spent in this country,\u201d Riaz added.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the court reserved the verdict on the request for the anchorperson\u2019s physical remand. Later, the judge rejected the ACE\u2019s plea and sent Riaz to jail on judicial remand.<\/p>\n In the written order, the judicial magistrate said that the perusal of the record showed that the accused is \u201cwell nominated in the FIR and a specific role has been assigned to him\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCareful perusal of the record shows that all the necessary documents required for the purpose of investigation are already in the possession of the prosecution. Accused has already given all the necessary documents in the case to the investigation officer (IO) during the course of the inquiry,\u201d the magistrate said.<\/p>\n He further noted that since nothing needed to be recovered from the accused, there was no need for granting physical remand.<\/p>\n \u201cHence, the request of the IO for granting 14 days physical remand is turned down and the accused is hereby sent to judicial lockup for 14 days,\u201d he said, adding that Riaz should be presented before the court on March 8.<\/p>\n Separately, the PTI said that Riaz had been \u201cillegally arrested once again\u201d and called for his release.<\/p>\n In a post on X, the party said that Riaz had \u201csuffered enforced disappearance and custodial torture for many months, at the hands of the illegitimate, authoritarian, fascist regime\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cImran Riaz Khan is one of the journalists who has been consistently vocal against the regime\u2019s atrocities and unlawful, unconstitutional activities,\u201d the party said.<\/p>\n It said that recently, Riaz was \u201cusing his voice against the unprecedented, brazen electoral fraud, which stole the two-thirds majority mandate of Imran Khan\u2019s PTI\u201d.<\/p>\n PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan also strongly condemned the arrest. Calling Riaz an \u201cindependent minded journalist\u201d, Omar said that he was abducted for months.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was released in a very weak state, and he suffered greatly during his \u2018enforced disappearance\u2019. This proves that there is no \u2018rule of law\u2019 in Pakistan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Imran Riaz \u2014 a YouTuber and television anchor \u2014 was arrested<\/a> two days after violent protests broke out across the country following PTI Chairman Imran Khan\u2019s arrest<\/a> on May 9.<\/p>\n He was last known to be taken to Cantt police station after his arrest and later to the Sialkot prison. On May 15, a law officer had told<\/a> the Lahore High Court that the anchorperson was released from jail after taking an undertaking in writing. His whereabouts, however, remained unknown.<\/p>\n Subsequently, a first information report (FIR) of Riaz\u2019s alleged abduction was registered<\/a> with Sialkot Civil Lines police on May 16 on the complaint of the anchorperson\u2019s father, Muhammad Riaz.<\/p>\n The FIR was registered against \u201cunidentified persons\u201d and police officials for allegedly kidnapping Riaz, invoking Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.<\/p>\n The journalist\u2019s father had also filed a plea in the LHC for his recovery.<\/p>\n During a May 19 hearing of the case, the anchorperson\u2019s father had become teary-eyed<\/a> in the LHC, pleading for mercy, as the whereabouts of his son remained unknown. The next day, the LHC chief justice had ordered the police to recover and present the anchorperson by May 22.<\/p>\n On that date, the LHC had directed the ministries of interior and defence to \u201cdischarge their constitutional duties to effect the recovery\u201d of the anchorperson after the Punjab inspector general revealed that there was no trace<\/a> of the journalist at any police department across the country.<\/p>\n The LHC was subsequently informed<\/a> that both the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence had said the anchorperson was not in their custody. On May 26, the high court had directed<\/a> \u201call the agencies\u201d to work together to find the anchorperson and produce him in the court by May 30.<\/p>\n When that date arrived, the Punjab IG had told<\/a> the LHC that phone numbers that had been traced back to Afghanistan were involved in the case.<\/p>\n The anchorperson\u2019s lawyer had contended<\/a> in the June 6 hearing that their patience was \u201cwearing thin\u201d even as the Punjab government had informed the high court that efforts to find the journalist were underway.<\/p>\n During the July 5 hearing, the LHC had established a deadline<\/a> of July 25 for the police to locate the missing journalist. However, no hearing could be held on the designated date due to the bench\u2019s unavailability.<\/p>\n In that particular hearing, retired Brigadier Falak Naz, representing the Ministry of Defence, had informed the court: \u201cWe are working on tracing locations and other issues. We are trying to recover Imran Riaz as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n On September 6, the Punjab IG had told LHC that the police would deliver \u201cgood news\u201d<\/a> in the next few days, following which he was granted time till September 13.<\/p>\n However, failing to deliver any major \u201cgood news\u201d, the IG on September 13 had assured<\/a> the court that the probe was \u201cgoing in the right direction\u201d.<\/p>\n On September 20, the LHC had given<\/a> the Punjab police chief a \u201clast opportunity\u201d to recover Riaz by September 26, adjourning the proceedings in a petition demanding his recovery till then.<\/p>\nPTI decries \u2018illegal arrest\u2019, calls for Riaz\u2019s release<\/h2>\n
2023 arrest<\/h2>\n