Anchorperson Imran Riaz was arrested from the Islamabad airport early Wednesday morning while departing for Saudi Arabia for Haj, his lawyer said. “He was arrested by unidentified people who were accompanied by policemen,” Advocate Azhar Siddique told media adding that a scuffle also took place at the airport. “Imran Riaz has been granted bail in all the cases registered again him,” the anchorperson’s lawyer added. Subsequently, Siddique filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking details of the first information report (FIR) under which Riaz was arrested. It is yet to be fixed before a bench for hearing. Riaz was to depart for Saudi Arabia for Haj from Islamabad when “many civil-dresses officers from various authorities came and arrested him without providing any details” and “took him to an undisclosed location”, says a complaint lodge with the police.

“No information has surfaced as to which FIR was used in order to apprehend the Applicant on the eve of 11.06.2024, therefore, it is the need of the day that the respondents be summoned by this court and they inform this court as to which FIRs have now been registered, of course, frivolously, against the applicant due to which he was illegally and arbitrarily arrested,” it said. It added that Riaz’s name was removed from the Exit Control List on June 11. The plea prayed that the petition be accepted and the police, Federal Investigation Agency, Secretary Interior and the Anti-Corruption Establishment be directed to place on record details of the FIR under which the anchorperson was arrested.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan