The court has sent him to physical remand for his alleged involvement in leaking information of former General Bajwa and his family's tax details.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Jan 14th, 2023) A court Saturday handed over Shahid Aslam, reporter allegedly involved in leaking tax data of former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa's family members, to the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days.
Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir of a district and sessions court heard the case.
The judge, after hearing arguments of both sides, reserved the verdict and later announced it.
During the proceedings, a prosecutor told the judge that the agency arretsed Shahid Aslam on Friday. He submitted that the suspect was allegedly involved in getting information from the Federal board of Revenue of Pakistan (FBR).
He submitted that there was evidence of Shahid Aslam's involvement in leaking information.
The suspect, meanwhile, denied all the charges against him, pointing out that there was no evidence against him as he had done nothing wrong.
Shahid Aslam stated that he had been covering FBR stories for a long time.
"I'm a journalist and I know my professional duties," said Shahid Aslam.
The prosecutor, however, raised a question that why Aslam was not providing password of his laptop.
The judge observed that getting information was not wrong. On it, the prosecutor said that all the suspects involved in leaking FBR information repeatedly mentioned the name of Shahid Aslam.
The Aslam's lawyer told the court that it should be determined that whether Aslam was arrested through a proper procedure or not.
The counsel questioned the statements of the suspects arrested earlier in the case.
"Whether the statements given by the suspects already under arrest are factually authentic?," Aslam's lawyer asked.
He stated that arresting a journalist was not right on basis of just statements.
He asked the court to discharge the case registered against him.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the court granted two-day physical remand of the Journalist into FIA's custody.
The authorities concerned registered a case against "some officials" for their alleged role in leaking information of tax details of former Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family members last year.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar took notice of the incident and ordered action against all those who were involved in leaking information.
