MQM’s Babar Ghauri handed over to police on seven-day remand

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court docket (ATC) on Tuesday handed over former federal minister and MQM chief Babar Ghauri to police on a seven-day bodily remand.

On Monday night time, the law-enforcement businesses detained Babar Khan Ghauri, as quickly he landed at Jinnah Worldwide Airport, Karachi after ending his seven-year self-exile.

The police produced the ex-federal minister earlier than the court docket as we speak to hunt his remand which was duly granted.

Ghauri was delivered to court docket amid tight safety, seated within the entrance seat of the police automobile, and the police avoided handcuffing the MQM chief — who was thought-about a detailed ally of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.

In court docket, police advised the choose that Ghauri was suspected of facilitating a provocative speech and a case has been registered in opposition to him on the SITE Tremendous Freeway Police Station.

After listening to the police’s arguments, the court docket awarded them a seven-day remand of Ghauri.

‘Baseless instances’

Chatting with journalists after the listening to, Ghauri mentioned that the instances in opposition to him are “baseless” and that had there been any fact within the allegations, he would “not have returned”.

In a separate growth, the Sindh Excessive Courtroom (SHC) granted Ghauri a nine-day protecting bail within the Nationwide Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation Company (FIA) instances — prohibiting the watchdogs from arresting him.

It’s pertinent to say right here that final week, the SHC had granted two-week protecting bail to him in a corruption reference and a money-laundering and terror-financing case.

The FIA had additionally booked Ghauri and different occasion leaders in 2017 in a cash laundering and terror financing case.

The Nationwide Accountability Bureau had additionally filed a reference with an accountability court docket in 2018 as he, as a federal minister for Ports and Transport from 2008 to 2013, was additionally going through prices of huge corruption in Karachi Port Belief by 940 unlawful appointments.