Fawad seeks medical tests to prove ‘custodial torture’

ISLAMABAD: Before his departure to Lahore for forensic tests, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday complained of “custodial torture”, and filed a plea seeking his medical examination.

The former minister filed an application before Kohsar police station’s magistrate.

The PTI mouthpiece, who was arrested on Wednesday under sedition charges for allegedly threatening members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) during a media talk, was taken to Lahore by the Islamabad police and was likely to be shifted back to the federal capital on Monday (today) after his tests were conducted.

Before leaving for Lahore, Mr Chaudhry told reporters that police were not conducting his medical tests and thus committing a violation of his constitutional rights. He recalled that police had mentally and physically tortured PTI leaders Senator Azam Khan Swati and Shahbaz Gill also.

In his photogrammetry test to be conducted in Lahore, his voice would be matched in a forensic laboratory.

Reportedly, photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena.

Mr Chaudhry has already been interrogated and questioned during his initial physical remand.

He was asked why he gave such a statement regarding the ECP and its members/staff, including Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

Judicial Magistrate Waqas Ahmed Raja in his order issued on Saturday had directed the Islamabad police to produce the former minister before his court on Monday (today) upon the expiry of his remand.

On the other hand, a senior official of Islamabad police claimed that Fawad Chaudhry was not facing the strict interrogations as faced by his colleagues Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill earlier.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2023

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