Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), said on Friday that his close aide Shahbaz Gill was “sexually abused” and “mentally and physically tortured” by investigators while they were looking into him for making “seditious remarks.” This was after a court in the capital refused to hand him over to Islamabad police because of his fragile health.
Mr. Khan also called for rallies all over the country to show support for his chief of staff, who is in jail for sedition. He promised to fight for justice for the PTI leader who is being treated at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. Shahbaz Gill was tortured, but the police in the capital said they didn’t do it. The PTI leader then asked, “Who did torture, Mr. Gill?”
“The public as a whole and we ourselves have a general idea of who could have done the horrible torture. Keep in mind that the public will respond. In a tweet, Mr. Khan said, “We will do everything we can to find the people who did this and bring them to justice.”
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“All of the pictures and videos show that Gill was mentally and physically tortured, including sexual abuse that is too horrible to describe. He felt bad that he had to put him down. I now know everything in full detail,” the former prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Khan asked his party members to protest against Mr. Gill’s detention and alleged torture by taking to the streets today in the federal capital and all regional headquarters. The leader of the PTI asked people to come to the rally to show that they were against torture.
Imran Khan, chairman of the PTI, was at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Friday to meet with his chief of staff Shahbaz Gill. On the way there, his car drove over a board next to a green area, which punctured a tire.
His silver metallic four-wheeler got a flat tire outside the building, where his party workers and supporters are trying to fix it.
One of the supporters can be heard on the video saying, “We can even give our lives for Khan Sahab,” and adding that fixing a tire is nothing compared to that.
Another person making the video said that Khan came in the four-wheeler but was leaving in a different car because the tire was flat.
Former PM Khan waited outside the hospital to meet with Gill while sitting in his four-wheeler. But he couldn’t get in because the authorities had put in place strict security measures.
The head of the PTI then went outside to talk to the media outside of PIMS. He then said that there would be rallies all over the country to support Gill and protest what is said to have been torture done to him.
Rally in Islamabad
Fawad Chaudhry said that the PTI “strongly condemned the worst kind of torture” done to Mr. Gill in a video clip that was posted on the party’s official Twitter account. He also said that the PTI would hold a rally on Jinnah Avenue from China Chowk to F-9 Park in the federal capital and at all regional headquarters.
Mr. Chaudhry said that Imran Khan will be in charge of the rally in Islamabad and will speak to the party workers in the park. A video link will send the speech to all of the regional headquarters. The leader of the PTI also said that the party has pictures and doctor’s certificates to back up their claims and that they have been sent to the right people.
Earlier, PTI leaders Babar Awan and Shahzad Wasim held a joint press conference where they said that Mr. Gill had been sexually abused and tortured.
But the government of Islamabad said that the PTI couldn’t hold a rally in the federal capital and that Section 144 was in effect in the city. The PTI, on the other hand, didn’t follow the orders, and Fawad Chaudhry said the rally would go on as planned.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement that Imran Khan, who is the head of the PTI, needs a court order to visit Shahbaz Gill in jail. Khan went to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital to see Gill, but he was turned away. This is when she spoke out. She added, “He is not a king who can go wherever he wants.”
Hearing in court
When the police asked Judicial Magistrate Raja Farrukh Ali Khan to keep Mr. Gill in custody for eight days, the PTI legal team fought against any extension of the remand.
The lawyer for Mr. Gill said that the current case was filed without the federal government’s permission.
The lawyer for the defense said that Gill was “subjected to fierce physical and mental torture,” and they filed an application for a first information report (FIR) against the criminals and people who they said tortured Gill.
The lawyer also had doubts about the medical board report, saying that the report about the state of the accused’s lungs was not given to the court on purpose.
The report, which came out late Thursday night, said that Mr. Gill was sent home because his health was stable and he was given some medicine.
The judge said, “Given the circumstances of the case at hand, I’m leaning toward giving the accused to the police for 48 hours today.” The accused should be sent back to Pims Hospital so that asthma and other respiratory diseases can be thoroughly looked into.
