An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday sent PTI founder Imran Khan\u2019s nephew Shahrez Khan to jail on judicial remand in a case pertaining to the Jinnah House attack during the May 9, 2023 riots.<\/p>\n
Lahore Police picked up Shahrez, son of Imran\u2019s sister Aleema Khan, from his mother\u2019s Lahore residence on August 21. His brother Shershah Khan was also arrested the next day over similar allegations, and sent on physical remand and then to jail.<\/p>\n
Lahore police presented Shahrez before the court of ATC Judge Manzer Ali Gill today upon the completion of his eight-day physical remand.<\/p>\n
Advocate Rana Mudassar Umer and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja appeared as Shahrez\u2019s counsel, while Imtiaz Ahmad Sipra was present as the prosecutor.<\/p>\n
Sipra sought a further 30-day physical custody of Shahrez, while Umer urged the court to discharge his client from the case. Judge Gill denied the police\u2019s request and ordered that Shahrez be sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.<\/p>\n
\u201cA cane has been recovered from the suspect\u2019s possession,\u201d the officer told the court, adding that Shahrez\u2019s photogrammetry test had been conducted as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther investigation of the incident needs to be completed. Hence, further remand may be given,\u201d Sipra said. He further said that Shahrez\u2019s social media accounts also need to be verified, according to today\u2019s court order, seen by Dawn.com.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Advocate Umer filed a bail plea for Shahrez before the ATC. \u201cNo recovery of any kind was done from the suspect. The investigation has been completed,\u201d the petition contended.<\/p>\n
Terming Shahrez\u2019s arrest \u201cillegal\u201d, the plea requested the court to order the triathlete\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
\u2018In Chitral on May 9\u2019
\nShahrez\u2019s lawyers submitted photocopies of affidavits of seven people who either travelled with him or were residing at Chitral on May 9, according to the court order.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearned defence counsels representing the accused during the course of arguments have tendered some photographs, affidavits as well as detail of foreign trips of the accused,\u201d the court order noted, adding that the defence lawyers had argued that Shahrez was not in Lahore from May 7 to May 12, 2023 but in Chitral.<\/p>\n
This image, claiming to show Shahrez\u2019s presence in Chitral on May 9, 2023, was shared widely on social media following his arrest. \u2014 X\/MariaShahrez
\nAccording to the order, the investigating officer was asked whether he had considered the evidence, to which he replied that the documents were presented at about 12am, hence he could not verify or investigate them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis court is of the view that verification of social media accounts, air travel history and participation of the accused in international sports events could easily be verified and searched out through Google, social media and newspapers, etc, without taking into custody of the accused on physical remand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Gill directed that Shahrez be presented before the court on September 13, and ordered the IO to submit the charge sheet by then.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Advocate Umer contended that the suspect was not present in Lahore on May 9, 2023 but was with family and friends in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s Chitral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe statement of the hotel manager where he stayed is also available,\u201d Umer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspect has been involved in this [case] because he is the PTI founder\u2019s nephew,\u201d the lawyer claimed. He added that no statement of Shahrez\u2019s inclusion in the case was part of the record.<\/p>\n
\u201cAleema Khan raises her voice for the PTI founder\u2019s release. Aleema Khan\u2019s son has been arrested to silence her voice,\u201d Umer contended.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have expressed their concerns over the arrests of Shahrez and Shershah, with the former terming them a \u201cpolitical witch-hunt\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday sent PTI founder Imran Khan\u2019s nephew Shahrez Khan to jail on judicial remand in a case pertaining to the Jinnah House attack during the May 9, 2023 riots. Lahore Police picked up Shahrez, son of Imran\u2019s sister Aleema Khan, from his mother\u2019s Lahore residence on August 21. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11649,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions\/11649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}