Islamabad ATC sends PTI’s Raoof Hasan on judicial remand in terrorism case

An Islamabad anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday sent PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with a case pertaining to alleged recovery of explosives.

Hasan was arrested on July 22 in a case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (Peca).

His arrest had come the same day as the interior ministry claimed the PTI was involved in “anti-state propaganda”. The government then formed a joint investigation committee (JIT) last week to probe those creating “chaos and disorder” in the country through “malicious social media campaigns”.

In the social media case, Hasan was remanded into the FIA’s custody for a total of seven days — an initial two-day physical remand, followed by a three-day and a two-day extension for further investigation.

After being sent on a 14-day judicial remand, Hasan was reportedly shifted to Adiala Jail on Wednesday but was arrested in a terrorism case the same day, according to The News.

His arrest was made in a case pertaining to the alleged possession of weapons and explosives, which did not name him directly but was the same in which PTI’s international media coordinator Ahmed Janjua had been taken into custody.

While an Islamabad court granted Hasan and eight others bail in the social media case on Thursday, he had already been handed over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on a two-day physical remand on Wednesday.

The remand was extended by a day on Friday and expired today, following which the PTI leader was produced before an Islamabad ATC today.

ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra presided over the hearing, during which Ali Bukhari appeared as Hasan’s lawyer and the CTD sought his seven-day physical remand.

At the outset of the hearing, Judge Sipra remarked that the prosecution could have made “some changes to the request for remand but presented the same copy again with just the date edited”.

Hasan’s lawyer then objected to the last paragraph of the court’s order from the previous hearing. He said he wanted to discuss the court order of the previous hearing. “If details of the [social media] accounts were needed, that could have been checked for online,” he said.

Judge Sipra replied that as a senior lawyer, Bukhari should have approached the high court against the order instead of objecting to it in court.

“Did you do something to form a connection [of the suspect] with the TTP and terrorists in the three-day remand?” the judge asked the prosecutor.

“Is the probe stopped at TTP or will it be taken forward?” he asked, to which the prosecutor replied that further investigation was needed.

The judge also asked if the prosecution had found any information about any alleged contact with terrorists from Hasan’s call detail record, bank transfers or meetings with other people.

Here, Hasan informed the court that he was not taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) as the court had ordered. “I was not taken to Pims [but] the doctor came [to visit me].”

“There has been no progress made in three days,” Judge Sipra noted.

Subsequently, the judge rejected the CTD request for seven-day custody and sent Hasan on a 14-day judicial remand.

Medical check-up, post-arrest bail sought

Meanwhile, Hasan filed separate petitions seeking post-arrest bail in the terrorism case and permission for his medical check-up.

Bukhari requested the court that Hasan be shifted to a hospital as “his medical condition does not allow him to remain in jail”.

He asserted that Hasan was entitled to a B-Class jail. The judge then ordered the Adiala jail superintendent to make appropriate arrangements for Hasan’s medical check-up.

On Hasan’s bail plea, Judge Sipra issued notices to respondents for August 6. He observed, “If the case record is not presented, I will make a decision [on the case].”