ISLAMABAD: An Additional Session Court on Wednesday granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry in a case pertaining to allegedly “inciting violence” against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members and the chief election commissioner (CEC).

Fawad was arrested by Punjab police a week ago from outside his residence after a complaint was lodged against him by the secretary of Election Commission of Pakistan Omar Hamid Khan, which accused the PTI leader of “inciting people against state institutions.”

Fawad is a frequent critique of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as he and his party believes the electoral watchdog is allegedly favoring the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition.

On Wednesday, judge Faizan Haidar Gilani of Islamabad’s Additional Session Court granted bail to Fawad Chaudhry against a surety bond of Rs20,000.

During the hearing, Fawad’s lawyer Babar Awan argued Omar Hamid Khan was a retired bureaucrat and not the state individually. Awan argued that cautioning someone of action is not ‘threatening’. The lawyer told court that sedition charges were added to the First Information Report (FIR) purely on political grounds.

Judge Faizan Haidar Gilani observed that Fawad was a parliamentarian and a senior lawyer himself. However, the court remarked that he is granting bail on the condition that Fawad will not repeat the conversation again.