- The FIA produced Zaman, who was arrested the other day in the case, before judicial magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk with a request of 14-day physical remand.
- Advocate Khwaja Harris appeared on behalf of Zaman and argued that the case was registered in light of an observation made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
- The counsel said Zaman was not a signatory of the cheques by which the funds were transferred.
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate of Lahore on Saturday remanded founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Hamid Zaman in two-day physical custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the ‘foreign’ finding case against the party.
The FIA produced Zaman, who was arrested the other day, before judicial magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk with a request of 14-day physical remand.
FIA Assistant Director Munam Bashir Chaudhry said the custody of the suspect was required for recovery of trust deed and vital evidence in transactions and for confrontation with the bank record.
He said the ledgers were always prepared regarding the trust property and accounts manually or digitally but the suspect had not produced the ledgers and counterfoils in the cheques issued by him to the Insaf Trust.
He said the recovery of the documents was necessary for conclusion of the investigation, therefore, maximum physical remand of the suspect should be granted.
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Advocate Khwaja Harris appeared on behalf of Zaman and argued that the case was registered in light of an observation made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in its judgment issued on June 21, 2022 that the suspect transferred prohibited funds to Insaf trust which was not used for performance for which the trust was established.
However, he said, the suspect rightly transferred the funds and the same were rightly used for the purpose.
The counsel said Zaman was not a signatory of the cheques by which the funds were transferred. He further said that the bank account mentioned in the FIR had no concern whatsoever with the judgement of the ECP. He said the suspect already cooperated with the investigation agency and had not concealed anything about the case.
He said the trust deed was a registered document, which was available in the office of the sub-registrar. The record regarding the bank transactions could also be easily available from the concerned banks, he added.
The counsel asked the court to discharge the suspect in the case.
The magistrate observed that recovery of the documents mentioned by the prosecution was necessary for the completion of the investigation. Therefore, he granted two-day physical remand of the suspect with a direction to the FIA to produce him again on Oct 10 with progress in the investigation.
