The Punjab Police on Friday dodged media waiting outside the Civil Lines Police Station and shifted journalist and anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan to a lockup of Central Investigating Agency (CIA) police in Kotwali Police Station.
Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq, the lawyer of Imran Riaz Khan, confirmed that his client was shifted to Kotwali Police Station. The police, which took the journalist from Chakwal in their official van as they reached Lahore Toll Plaza, shifted Imran Riaz Khan into another private car to dodge his fans and the journalists waiting outside the Civil Lines Police Station. The journalists kept waiting for the arrival of the police team carrying Imran Riaz but later they came to know that he was shifted to Kotwali Police Station. According to reports, the journalist would be produced by the police before a judicial magistrate in Cantonment area for his physical remand.
Earlier, a local court of Chakwal district had allowed judicial remand of the journalist. The police also secured his remand for traveling and shifting from one district to another. Civil society members and leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) strongly condemned the arrest of Imran Riaz and demanded the authorities concerned release him immediately.
“The fake cases against Imran Riaz Khan and his arrest is not the sheer violation of the fundamental human rights but is an attack on freedom of speech,” said Abdullah Malik, the president of Civil Society Network, Pakistan.
Malik said that civil society strongly condemned the arrest of Imran Riaz and termed all the cases against him revengeful tactics and tantamount to curbing freedom of press and speech in Pakistan. “Every citizen has the right to access to information under Article 19-A of the constitution,” he said, demanding immediate release of the journalist. He also asked the superior judiciary to take notice of the violation of fundamental human rights in the country.
Malik said the state institutions and machinery were being misused by the relevant authorities.
His lawyer Mian Ali Ashaf claimed that the journalist was kept awake for the last 60 hours. The lawyer also lamented the police’s lack of cooperation in the case.
Imran Riaz was arrested from Islamabad Toll Plaza late Tuesday. He was implicated in a number of cases which he said were motivated by his refusal to “stop speaking the truth”. Of late, more than a dozen FIRs were lodged against him on charges as serious as abetment of mutiny and criticism of state institutions. In a video of his arrest, which went viral on the social media, over a dozen police officers of the Punjab Police could be seen surrounding his car.
