Islamabad court dismisses Shahbaz Gill’s bail plea in sedition case - Pakistan

A District and Sessions court of Islamabad dismissed the post-arrest bail petition of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill on Tuesday, a day after it reserved its ruling in the sedition case. Additional District and Sessions Judge Zafar Iqbal pronounced the reserved verdict. Imran Khan’s chief of staff was arrested on August 9 after he made controversial remarks allegedly about the army during an ARY News bulletin and has been detained since, amid claims of him being subjected to torture and sexual abuse during custody. On August 25, he applied for post-arrest bail.

Yesterday’s hearing

In yesterday’s hearing, Gill’s counsel revealed that the PTI chief’s aide was willing to tender an apology for any misunderstandings. Police produced the relevant record before the court and at the request of Gill’s counsel, the court allowed him to peruse the record. The counsel argued that the city magistrate had accused Gill of sedition, an allegation that he had never thought of. He said the police registered a case against Gill on the basis of a selected portion of the transcript of his live interaction on television. He claimed that the statement was taken out of context, adding he was, however, ready to tender an apology. The counsel stated that Gill had talked about the pride of the country’s armed forces and never attempted to incite mutiny among them. Special prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi, on the other hand, argued that Gill had launched a systematic campaign against the senior hierarchy of the armed forces and tried to politicise the institution. He added that Gill had tried to provoke the bureaucracy and incite them to disobey the government. Regarding the allegation of torture, Abbasi told the court that the medical board had dismissed these allegations. He concluded that the evidence against him was sufficient to connect him with the alleged crime. The Kohsar police arrested Gill on Aug 9 and the judicial magistrate remanded his custody to police till August 12. The police requested the magistrate to extend the remand order, however, he was sent to judicial lockup. Advocate General Islamabad Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon filed a revision petition before Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Mohammad Adnan which was dismissed. Later, acting Chief Justice IHC Justice Aamer Farooq remanded the matter back to the sessions court with the direction to decide the revision petition in accordance with the law. ADSJ Zeba Chaudhry in a subsequent hearing granted two days’ remand of Gill to the police. However, her remand order was criticised on social media and PTI Chairman Imran Khan in two public speeches censured the judge as well as the police authorities. Interestingly, the IHC acting chief justice while disposing of the petition related to Gill’s remand had also upheld the order of ADSJ Chaudhry. Owing to the allegedly threatening speeches, Imran was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) while IHC’s larger bench issued a show-cause notice to him over alleged contempt of the judge.

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