A local court in Lahore sent journalist Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with a two-decade old bank loan for which the complaint was filed in 2011.

The FIA had arrested Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain a day earlier from a coffee shop in Lahore.

While presenting him before a judicial magistrate, the FIA said it needed two weeks of physical remand to question the journalist over the bank loan that he never returned.

His lawyer Azhar Siddiq pointed out that the bank loan dated back to 2003, with the case filed in 2011. He pointed out that the journalist was not charged with forgery.

After hearing the arguments, the magistrate rejected FIA’s plea while sending Hussain on 14-day judicial remand.

Arrest

The veteran journalist was arrested from Islamabad, with his son telling a local news channel that dozens of officers arrived at the scene and arrested him

“There was no notice from FIA, there was an old case of 2004 or 2005 related to the property in which we had testified,” he added.

It should be noted that the case against Hussain was registered in the FIA’s Commercial Banking Circle in 2011 and his arrest warrants were issued in July 2013.

The senior journalist was accused of taking a loan from the bank.

Chaudhry Ghulam Hussain is not only an experienced journalist but also is one of three experts on the the talk show “The Reporters”.

The show previously featured the late Arshad Sharif and Sabir Shakir, who has since resigned, alongside Hussain.

Both Sharif and Shakir, who resigned shortly after each other, had cases registered them. Shakir has since gone into hiding citing concerns of safety.