Court grants Gill’s physical remand for another 48 hours

ISLAMABAD: A court on Wednesday granted another two days’ physical remand of Shahbaz Gill, a senior PTI leader who had been arrested last week over sedition charges after his controversial remarks on a private TV channel.

A district and sessions court of Islamabad remanded Gill to police custody for 48 hours after hearing a review plea. The Islamabad High Court a day earlier had ordered re-hearing of the appeal after a duty magistrate dismissed the request for an extension to the PTI leader’s physical remand.

At the outset of the hearing by Sessions judge Zeba Chaudhry, Special Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi told the court the judicial magistrate had remanded Gill into police custody for two days but the investigation officer requested for an extension in the remand. He said the duty magistrate should have considered all aspects of the matter but he rejected the request. “How did he [magistrate] take Gill’s statement for the final statement?” he asked.

Abbasi maintained a remand of at least 10 days is granted in ordinary cases while this is a case of criminal conspiracy. He contended that the accused PTI leader was allegedly telling lies repeatedly and, therefore, further interrogation and a polygraph test was required.

The special prosecutor further said Gill had already confessed his driver had one of his mobile phones. “The IO clearly wrote in the plea that it’s not just about the recovery [of the phone] but there are other aspects that need to be investigated,” he said.

After the completion of arguments by special prosecutor, Gill’s lawyer Salman Safdar gave arguments. He maintained the case against the PTI leader was based on malafide intent and political revenge because he mentioned the names of nine PML-N leaders including Maryam Nawaz, Ayaz Sadiq and others. He complained some aspects of the basis of seeking remand had been kept secret while the case record had not been provided to the defence. He said it needed to be ascertained why the police wanted Gill to be remanded.

“The case has been based on the selection of words and speech [...] and the police have the speech.” He also raised objection over the admissibility of the case, saying the complainant was a magistrate who filed the case but a treason case could not be filed without the permission of the federal government.

Moreover, he said the sections imposed in the case were of capital punishment and life imprisonment, asking “if these sections are applicable on such a speech.”

“Gill made some wrong statements but things could be wrong but they don’t come under treason or criminal conspiracy,” he said.

Gill’s lawyer also contended that his client had been remanded for three days and the request was not turned down immediately. He said the IO failed to complete the investigation in three days while the forensic department had sent the reports within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the PTI leadership strongly reacted to the court’s approval of a police request for an extension in Gill’s physical remand. Party Chairman Imran Khan condemned the court’s decision, saying he was concerned about Gill being sent into police custody once more.

“Gill is in a fragile state of mental and physical health because of the torture inflicted upon him when he was abducted and taken to an undisclosed location,” Imran wrote on Twitter.

He maintained Gill’s remand was a “part of the conspiracy to target me and PTI by forcibly getting false statements against us similar to what they have been doing against social media activists”.

The PTI chief vowed to take legal and political action to counter the “extra-constitutional and extra-legal actions being devised against us”.

Gill was arrested last Tuesday afternoon from Banigala Chowk in the federal capital a day after making controversial remarks on a private TV channel. He was subsequently booked on charges of sedition and inciting members of state institutions against the Pakistan Army.