ISLAMANAD/KARACHI: An Islamabad district court on Monday remanded former prime minister Imran Khan's chief of staff, Dr Shahbaz Gill, in the custody of Islamabad police for another two days to investigate him in a case involving charges of sedition and incitement to mutiny.
Gill was arrested on August 9, a day after he made controversial comments on a television show, asking army officers not to follow orders of their top command if they were “against the sentiments of the masses.”
The country’s national media regulator described his statement as “seditious” and said it was tantamount to inciting revolt within the military.
Gill, who has since been in custody, was admitted to hospital last Wednesday over breathing issues. On Monday, the police produced him before a judicial magistrate after being discharged from Islamabad's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital and requested the judge to remand him in custody for eight day
During the hearing, Gill informed Judicial Magistrate Malik Aman he was being pressurized to give a statement against ex-PM Khan.
“I have given no such statement till today,” he told the judge. “Even if a written statement of me surfaces after today, it should not be considered my statement as it would be a statement taken from me through torture.”
Police officers escort Shahbaz Gill, center in blue shirt, a political aide to former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, after a court appearance, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on August 22, 2022. (AP)
Gill pleaded with the judge to send him to jail, assuring that he would cooperate in the investigation.
Gill’s lawyers, Babar Awan and Faisal Fareed, opposed the police request for physical remand, saying his client had been "tortured" and "stripped off" during a previous stint in police remand.
“What image of Pakistan are we showing to the world,” the lawyer asked. “What are we showing to our generations?”
Fareed also presented Gill's medical report, prepared by Adiala Jail doctors, and repeated that his client was “tortured.” Islamabad police deny the allegation.
The 14-page medical report, a copy of which is available with Arab News, was based on Gill’s judicial remand in jail from August 12 to 17. The report said bruises were found on the left and right side of the suspect’s back, the back of his left hand, and on his buttocks.
The court granted the police two-day remand of the accused and adjourned the hearing.
Separately, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved its verdict on a petition filed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, seeking to abolish Gill's physical remand.
In another development, a judicial magistrate in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi remanded a local news anchor, Jameel Farooui, in custody for “falsely” accusing Islamabad police on his YouTube channel of “physically and sexually” assaulting Gill.
"In the given situation, the police officers request seems justified to the extent of granting the accused to transit police custody remand; and hence, accused is remanded to such police custody for three days," the Karachi South magistrate said.
"I.O. (investigating officer) is directed to produce the accused before the Magistrate according to law under intimation to this Court; and, if in the meantime before reaching the Court for whatever justifiable reasons, the period of remand ends, he shall seek fresh remand from the nearest Magistrate in surroundings for further proceeding."
In a statement on Monday, the Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the “disappearance” of the news anchor after his “arrest.”
“[Farooqui] was arrested while he was going to Bol News [a local TV channel] from his residence in Gulshan-e-Iqbal to participate in a program,” the statement said.
“The vlog by Jameel Farooqui is objectionable and in contradiction to journalistic and moral traditions,” it added. “However, the way he has been made to disappear is not only against the basic human rights but also in violation to the basic right of defense of an accused.”
Reacting to the development, senior leader of Khan’s political party, Shireen Mazari, condemned the arrest while accusing the government of being “on the rampage against journalists.”
Previously, Ammad Yousaf, the news director at ARY News, the channel that aired Gill’s comment, was also arrested from his residence in Karachi before being released on the directives of a local court. ARY News has been off air since Aug 8.
