Anchorperson Imran Riaz arrested at Lahore airport: lawyer – Pakistan

Anchorperson Imran Riaz was arrested at the Lahore airport early Wednesday morning while departing for Saudi Arabia for Haj, his lawyer said.

“He was arrested by unidentified people who were accompanied by policemen,” Advocate Azhar Siddique told Dawn.com, adding that a scuffle also took place at the airport.

“Imran Riaz has been granted bail in all the cases registered against him,” the anchorperson’s lawyer added.

Subsequently, Siddique filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking details of the first information report (FIR) under which Riaz was arrested. It is yet to be fixed before a bench for hearing.

The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, stated that Riaz was to depart for Saudi Arabia for Haj from Lahore when “many civil-dresses officers from various authorities came and arrested him without providing any details” and “took him to an undisclosed location”.

“No information has surfaced as to which FIR was used in order to apprehend the Applicant on the eve of 11.06.2024, therefore, it is the need of the day that the respondents be summoned by this court and they inform this court as to which FIRs have now been registered, of course, frivolously, against the applicant due to which he was illegally and arbitrarily arrested,” it said.

It added that Riaz’s name was removed from the Exit Control List on June 11.

The plea prayed that the petition be accepted and the police, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), interior secretary and the Anti-Corruption Establishment be directed to place on record details of the FIR under which the anchorperson was arrested.

Separately, Riaz’s brother filed another petition in the LHC demanding that the anchorperson be immediately released from “illegal and improper custody” and be produced in court.

The plea, seen by Dawn.com, named the Punjab inspector general, Lahore capital city police officer, Cantt superintendent of police, FIA director and cyber crime wing director as respondents in the case.

It stated that Riaz was “unlawfully and illegal[ly]” stopped from travelling abroad and was being kept under “illegal and unlawful” detention.

Earlier this year, Riaz was arrested in a graft case about the contract of Dhrabi Lake in Chakwal and was later granted bail by a special court. However, the anchorperson was rearrested in another case pertaining to violence outside PTI founder Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence.

On March 10, an anti-terrorism court had granted him post-arrest bail against surety bonds worth Rs200,000.

PTI condemns arrest, calls for immediate release

2023 arrest

Imran Riaz — a YouTuber and television anchor — was arrested two days after violent protests broke out across the country following PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9.

He was last known to be taken to Cantt police station after his arrest and later to the Sialkot prison. On May 15, a law officer had told the Lahore High Court that the anchorperson was released from jail after taking an undertaking in writing. His whereabouts, however, remained unknown.

Subsequently, a first information report (FIR) of Riaz’s alleged abduction was registered with Sialkot Civil Lines police on May 16 on the complaint of the anchorperson’s father, Muhammad Riaz.

The FIR was registered against “unidentified persons” and police officials for allegedly kidnapping Riaz, invoking Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The journalist’s father had also filed a plea in the LHC for his recovery.

During a May 19 hearing of the case, the anchorperson’s father had become teary-eyed in the LHC, pleading for mercy, as the whereabouts of his son remained unknown. The next day, the LHC chief justice had ordered the police to recover and present the anchorperson by May 22.

On that date, the LHC had directed the ministries of interior and defence to “discharge their constitutional duties to effect the recovery” of the anchorperson after the Punjab inspector general revealed that there was no trace of the journalist at any police department across the country.

The LHC was subsequently informed that both the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence had said the anchorperson was not in their custody. On May 26, the high court had directed “all the agencies” to work together to find the anchorperson and produce him in the court by May 30.

When that date arrived, the Punjab IG had told the LHC that phone numbers that had been traced back to Afghanistan were involved in the case.

The anchorperson’s lawyer had contended in the June 6 hearing that their patience was “wearing thin” even as the Punjab government had informed the high court that efforts to find the journalist were underway.

During the July 5 hearing, the LHC had established a deadline of July 25 for the police to locate the missing journalist. However, no hearing could be held on the designated date due to the bench’s unavailability.

In that particular hearing, retired Brigadier Falak Naz, representing the Ministry of Defence, had informed the court: “We are working on tracing locations and other issues. We are trying to recover Imran Riaz as soon as possible.”

On September 6, the Punjab IG had told LHC that the police would deliver “good news” in the next few days, following which he was granted time till September 13.

However, failing to deliver any major “good news”, the IG on September 13 had assured the court that the probe was “going in the right direction”.

On September 20, the LHC had given the Punjab police chief a “last opportunity” to recover Riaz by September 26, adjourning the proceedings in a petition demanding his recovery till then.

He was finally released on September 25, after more than four months of “being missing”.