An anti-terrorism court in Karachi Tuesday remanded MQM-London leader Babar Ghauri in police custody for seven days till July 12 in a sedition case. He was brought to the court amid tight security with no handcuffs on. Ghauri, once considered a close ally to former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, was arrested at the Karachi International Airport Monday night upon his return. The police informed the court that Ghauri was arrested on the charges of sedition in a case registered in 2015. The ATC was informed that Ghauri had allegedly facilitated a provocative speech by the party’s founder and 30 other MQM leaders, including Faisal Ali Subzwari, Nasreen Jalil, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Raza Haroon, Saif Yar Khan, Rehan Hashmi, Khawaja Izhar, Farooq Sattar, Rasheed Godil, Rauf Siddiqui, Waseem Akhtar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Qamar Mansoor. Ghauri’s counsel Bashir Shah argued that his client had been arrested despite having been granted bail. The former federal minister has several cases filed against him at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and had obtained a protective bail, contended Shah. The court prevented the NAB and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from arresting Ghauri and extended his protective bail by another seven days and ordered him to appear before the trial court, says a news report. Speaking to the media prior to the hearing, Ghauri said he had returned to the country on account of his mother’s ill health. “If I was involved in any wrongdoing, I would not have returned,” he said, adding that he would face the trial even though he rejected all accusations. It must be noted that last month the MQM leader, who had been living in self-imposed exile since 2015, announced his return to face cases filed against him. In a separate development, the Sindh High Court (SHC) granted Ghauri a nine-day protective bail in the National Accountability Bureau and Federal Investigation cases – prohibiting the watchdogs from arresting him.