Pak journo Imran Riaz stopped from leaving country

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistani journalist and anchorperson Imran Riaz was offloaded from a Dubai-bound flight, Geo TV reported on Friday.

Immigration sources said his name was on the black list since he is facing sedition cases registered across the country.

In a tweet, Riaz said he was leaving for Dubai for some medical tests. “My doctors told me that I was fed something while in jail that could be fatal for me […] thus, to prove this, I wanted to get my tests done,” he said.

Lahore High Court on July 9 granted bail to Riaz Khan. The court adjourned the hearing of the plea for the expulsion of cases till July 19 and also directed Khan to appear before the magistrate on the next working day.

The LHC approved Imran Riaz Khan’s bail on personal surety bonds.

An official said that the police handed over the journalist to the CIA Kotwali police for interrogation.

He was likely to be presented before the duty magistrate on Saturday, Dawn reported.

The case was filed by a local resident of Lahore, Muhammad Asif, on charges of abetment of mutiny and criticism of state institutions.

On Tuesday night, Imran Riaz Khan was heading towards Islamabad to acquire a pre-arrest bail from the High Court, when he was arrested by the Attock police, Dawn reported.

Later, in the wee hours of Thursday, the anchorperson was granted relief by the local court but was immediately arrested by a team of Chakwal police outside the courtroom.

Before shifting him to Lahore, a local court of Chakwal district had allowed his judicial remand.

In the latest First Information Report (FIR) against Khan, the complainant alleged that Imran Riaz accused the army of violating human rights and damaging the state by indulging in politics, according to Dawn.

Asif further said Khan had accused the army and said that they had put Pakistan’s integrity at stake, adding that the journalist committed an offence by inciting officers and other personnel of the army.

The complainant mentioned that recently Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had awarded army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa with the King Abdulaziz Medal for making “significant contributions to defence cooperation” between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Asif alleged in the FIR that the journalist also mocked the Saudi government’s decision in his video.

Khan’s case is among several cases that have been lodged against journalists in Pakistan for allegedly spreading hate against the army and state institutions. This latest arrest comes in the backdrop of a growing crackdown on journalists in Pakistan. (Dawn/ANI)