A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Friday directed capital police to submit the record in PTI leader Shahbaz Gill’s sedition case before the court by tomorrow (Saturday).

Gill, who has been arrested on charges of sedition and inciting mutiny in the army, had approached the sessions court in Islamabad on Thursday for post-arrest bail till the disposal of the case.

Gill 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.

Gill’s lawyers Faisal Chaudhry and Sardar Masroof Khan were in court for the hearing today.

As the sessions court took up his plea for bail, Additional District and Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Supra asked about the investigation officer and asked whether the officer did not get the court notice for appearing.

A sub-inspector of the Islamabad police team told the court that the officer was in Karachi and that he would leave for Islamabad. “It would take some time to reach the court.” The judge responded that the officer must appear within a couple of hours.

“The investigation officer is in Karachi and he cannot reach here sooner,” the sub-inspector said.

The judge warned if the record was not produced then a senior superintendent of police and Islamabad inspector general would be summoned.

Gill’s counsels said they were ready to offer an airline ticket to the investigation officer.

The official sought two days from the court, saying the record would be produced by Monday.

The judge directed him to furnish the case record before the court on Saturday, while also seeking the appearance of the investigation officer.

Meanwhile, a brother of Gill had on Thursday filed a complaint against Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry for remanding him in police custody.

Yaseen Gill filed the complaint with the chief justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) and a member of the court’s inspection team.

The saga of Gill’s remand

Gill was taken into custody under Sections 349 (common intention), 109 (abetment), 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), 121 (waging war against state), 124-A (sedition), 131 (abetting mutiny, or attempt to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty), 153 (provoking to cause riot), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Later, Dawn reported that Section 201 of the PPC — causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender — was added to the FIR.

A day after his arrest, an Islamabad district and sessions court had granted police a two-day physical remand of the PTI leader.

Two days later, police had sought an extension in the remand but the court had turned down the request and sent Gill on a judicial remand instead.

Police had then filed a review petition against the rejection of their application the same day. However, this appeal was also rejected and subsequently, Islamabad Advocate General Jahangir Khan Jadoon moved the IHC for Gill’s physical remand.

On August 16, the IHC had referred the matter back to the trial court and later that day, a judicial magistrate had approved Gill’s two-day physical remand in police custody.

However, it was only two hours after the court’s ruling that Islamabad police were able to take Gill’s custody.

According to a Dawn report, in a bid to thwart Gill’s handover to capital police, arrangements were made to move the PTI leader to Raw­a­l­pindi District Head­quarters (DHQ) Hospital after he complained of breathing trouble, even though jail authorities were convinced that they had the facilities to treat him.

When he was eventually handed over to Islamabad police late night that day, the PTI leader was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences owing to his health complaints.

The development led to a delay in the completion of Gill’s physical remand, with the trial court concluding on Friday last week that the remand time began at 7:15am that day, when the PTI leader was handed over to police by hospital authorities, and not on Wednesday.

At the time, the court had suspended the handing over of Gill to police for the completion of his two-day physical remand and directed Islamabad police to shift him to the Pims for a medical examination on complaints of his ill health.

When Gill was again produced before the court on Monday, it had ruled: “The time for physical remand would start when the custody of accused would be given to investigation officer for interrogation and recovery and by no stretch of the imagination the time spent by accused in hospital can be considered as a time of physical remand.”

It had fixed the time of commencement for the 48 hours at 1pm on Monday and ordered Gill to be produced in court on Wednesday (today) at, or before, 1pm.

Yesterday, the IHC upheld the additional district and sessions judge’s order to hand over Gill’s custody to Islamabad police, with Acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq observing that the evidence placed before the additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) led to the conclusion that anot­her two-day police remand was required.

Subsequently, the IHC ruled that “no interference was required in the order of the revisional court [ADSJ]”.

Authorities have maintained that the ongoing investigation against Gill and collection of evidence cannot be completed without an extension of his remand in police custody.

Meanwhile, PTI leaders have alleged that Gill has been subjected to torture and abuse in police custody and contended the demand for Gill’s physical remand based on these claims.

On Tuesday, Gill also accused police of physically and mentally torturing him and orchestrating a “fake medical checkup” when his “body was full of bruises”. He has also alle­g­­ed that he was stripped and thrown into a room where he was beaten and kicked for three nights after his arrest on August 9.

He levelled these accusations in front of a committee formed by the Islamabad police chief upon the IHC’s directives to probe his claims of torture during the custody.

Gill claimed no doctor at Pims che­cked him.

In a related development, another case has been registered against Gill at the Secretariat police station after two weapons were recovered from his room at the Parliament Lodges.

The controversy

On August 9, the same day when Gill was arrested, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) had issued a show-cause notice to ARY News for airing comments from Gill, that it said were “highly hateful and seditious” remarks tantamount to “incite armed forces towards revolt”.

The notice went on to say that Gill was invited via a telephonic call for his comments and during his talk with the channel, Gill had alleged that the government was trying to provoke the lower and middle tier of the army against the PTI, saying the families of such “rank and file” support Imran Khan and his party “which is fuelling rage within the government”.

He had also alleged that the “strategic media cell” of the ruling PML-N was spreading false information and fake news to create divisions between PTI chief Imran Khan and the armed forces.

Gill had said the government leaders, including Javed Latif, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and former National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq, had lambasted the army in the past “and they were at the government positions now”.

“The statement made by the guest on ARY News is a violation of Article 19 of the Constitution as well as Pemra laws. Airing of such content on your news channel shows either weak editorial control on the content or the licensee is intentionally indulged in providing its platform to such individuals who intend to spread malice and hatred against state institutions for their vested interests,” the watchdog stated.

“Dr Gill tried to malign the federal government, claiming the government functionaries are spearheading a campaign through social media cell for propagating anti-army narrative,” the authority said.