LHC declares PTI founder’s physical remand verdict ‘null and void’

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on declared the verdict allowing physical arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan on May 9 as “null and void”.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh and Justice Anwar-ul-Haq Pannu reserved its verdict on the petitions challenging the physical custody of the former prime minister.
The Supreme Court also declared the PTI founder’s appearance notice through a video link invalid.
During today’s hearing, Judge Saleem said a suspect cannot be forced to submit to a photogrammetry test.
Meanwhile, Pannu asked the prosecutor when he got the idea that we should now move towards modern facilities.
Punjab Attorney General Farhad Ali Shah told the court that the facility to conduct the photogrammetry test was in the jail and it would be an injustice not to give the prosecution a “full chance”.
“At the end, the prosecution is accused of failing,” Shah added.
The prosecutor told the court that the investigation would not have been possible without the recovery of the mobile phone through which the tweets and WhatsApp messages were sent.
To this, Judge Pannu asked how the mobile phone will be obtained when the suspect is in jail.
The PTI founder had filed a petition against the verdict of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), saying that the police did not properly consider the records while awarding Khan to physical custody.
The Lahore ATC last week approved the 10-day physical custody of the PTI founder in 12 cases related to the May 9 riots.
He was taken into custody in five cases of Sarwar Road police station, three cases of Gulberg police station and one case each of Race Course, Shadman, Mughalpura and Model Town police stations.