Islamabad court refuses to prolong Shahbaz Gill’s remand

Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Gill says that he was “tortured,” so the court puts the PTI leader in jail on judicial remand. On Friday, a court in Islamabad said no to the police’s request to keep Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill in custody longer because he was accused of sedition.

The leader of the PTI was brought before the judicial magistrate Umar Shabbir this morning. His two-day physical remand had ended, and there were strict security measures in place at the court.

Gill had been ordered by the court to get a medical exam, which was done. Today, the police gave the court a report on that exam.

As Gill was brought before the judge in a courtroom full of people, his lawyer asked why the advocate general was there. He also said that it was clear that the government was meddling in the case. After this, the court told everyone who didn’t need to be there to leave.

It also let Gill meet with his legal team, as well as with Fawad Chaudhry, who used to be the information minister and other PTI leaders.

At the start of the hearing, the police asked for Gill’s physical remand to be extended.

The person in charge of the investigation told the court that a CD of the radio show where Gill was said to have said bad things about the army had been found, and the audio evidence matched.

He also said that Gill left one of her cell phones in the car and had the other with him.

Advocate General of Islamabad Jahangir Khan Jadoon said that a polygraph test needs to be done because “a transcript is just being read, and we don’t know who is behind the whole mess.”

Jadoon then asked for an extension of the physical remand, but Gill’s lawyer, Faisal Chaudhry, said it wasn’t necessary and that a polygraph test could be done without it.

After that, the court denied the request to extend the physical remand and sent the accused back to jail on judicial remand.

“What’s going on with me is political payback.”

‘I was asked how many times I met with Lt. General Faiz Hameed’

Gill told the media after his court appearance that he was asked how often he had met Lt. General Faiz Hameed during the investigation. This was a reference to how close the PTI chief was said to be with the former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief.

In October 2021, the opposition said that party leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan had a fight with the army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, over the transfer of Lt. Gen. Faiz as the director general of the ISI. The opposition said that Lt. Gen. Faiz was politically supporting the PTI. Back then, there were rumors that Gen. Faiz was Imran’s top choice to take Gen. Bajwa’s place.

But Imran broke his silence about the theory in June. “I’ve never thought about who I’ll choose to be the next army chief in November 2022. I had never thought about this because it never came up. Imran had said at a seminar, “What I had in mind was that when the time came, I would follow merit and vote for the best candidate.”

Gill had earlier told the court that he had been tortured and that no medical exam had been done on him.

He also said that he had not been locked up at the Kohsar Police Station, where the case was filed, and that he had been kept awake all night and not been able to talk to his lawyers.

He added that he would never say anything bad about the army.

“I’m a professor, not a criminal. I wasn’t even held at the Kohsar Police Station,” Gill said.

“During the investigation, I was asked over and over again what the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, had told me to do.”I haven’t said anything like that,” he said. “What’s happening to me is political revenge.”