A Lahore district and sessions court on Friday sent anchorperson Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain to jail on judicial remand for 14 days in a case pertaining to bank fraud. Hussain was arrested from Lahore’s Gulberg by the Federal Investigation Agency on Friday.
According to a press release issued by the agency, Hussain took Rs57 million loan from a bank in 2003 by submitting fake documents.
The anchor’s two sons were also named in the case, the agency said, adding that a banking court in Lahore issued a perpetual warrant (non-bailable warrant) for Hussain.
Earlier today, Hussain was presented before a Lahore sessions court. During the hearing, the FIA submitted a plea seeking 14-day physical remand of the journalist.
“Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain did not return a loan he had taken from a bank,” FIA prosecutor Munim Bashir told the court, contending that the loan secured by submitting fake documents.
However, Azhar Siddiqui — Hussain’s lawyer — argued that the case was more than a decade old and the first information report (FIR) against his client was registered in 2011. “Will the FIA now work for banks to recover money?”
He said that Hussain had never been accused of submitting fake documents.
“Late at night, 30 to 40 people came to arrest him. Did they come because of a personal grudge,” Siddiqui asked, demanding to know the real reason for arresting the anchor yesterday.
The court then asked the FIA prosecutor about how Hussain was appearing on national television every day if he had been declared a proclaimed offender in 2013.
