Lahore Court Extends Fawad Chaudhry’s Interim Bail Until April 16

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has extended the interim bail of former Information Minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry until April 16. Fawad Chaudhry appeared before the ATC for the hearing of his interim bail in five separate cases.

During the proceedings, Fawad Chaudhry’s lawyer argued that a petition had been filed to merge all the cases, as they stemmed from the same incident, despite being registered as separate FIRs. He further stated that a trial had already begun in one of the cases in Faisalabad, and requested more time for arguments until a decision was made by the High Court.

The court, however, suggested that if the defense was not ready to present arguments, they could withdraw the bail. The investigating officer informed the court that Fawad Chaudhry had joined the investigation and that the inquiry in the cases had been completed.

After the hearing, Fawad Chaudhry spoke to the media outside the court, stating, “Yesterday, Ali Amin said decide who the terrorists are. Most of the cases in the ATC are related to PTI.” He further added, “If the founder of PTI and we are terrorists, then the matter is settled.”

He also pointed out that PTI’s leadership lacks the ability to unite people, and emphasized that the founder of PTI was not called to the National Security Parliamentary Committee meeting, nor did the real leadership of Balochistan attend. Fawad Chaudhry criticized that talks with PPP and PML-N broke down when the promised meeting could not be arranged.