ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan and other leaders of the party on Wednesday strongly condemned the district and sessions court’s judgment granting the police physical remand of Shahbaz Gill for 48 hours in a sedition case filed against him.
Taking to Twitter, Imran Khan said that he was "very concerned" about Shahbaz Gill being sent into police remand again.
“He is in a fragile state of mental and physical health because of the torture inflicted on him when he was abducted and taken to an undisclosed location and then again at the police station,” he added.
He said that Gill's remand is 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 chairman vowed to take legal and political action to counter the "extra-constitutional and extra-legal actions being devised against us".
Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry also criticised the order and said that "judges sending political workers in remand for torture while knowing everything are criminals".
Fawad said that there is no parallel to the way human rights are being "utterly destroyed" in Pakistan. He said that Gill is being sent into police custody for "torture" instead of interrogation.
Senator Faisal Javed Khan said that the authorities may take action against Gill as he "made a huge mistake".
He, however, said that the laws "should be equal for everyone".
"We condemn the treatment meted out at Gill and this House should also condemn it," Javed said in a speech in Senate.
In a tweet, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar said that the reason behind the insistence on the physical remand of Gill is "more torture" as the police seized his phone at the time of his arrest.
"[I] met Shahbaz Gill in Adiala, [his] spirits are high. Despite the worst torture meted out at him in Islamabad, [Gill] refused to make a false statement against Imran Khan," Umar wrote.
Umar, in a press conference, said that the party has provided evidence of the alleged torture of Gill to the court.
"They [coalition government] forcefully want to get a statement by inflicting torture on Gill and we want to bring it in the public record," said Umar. He demanded that the party members should know where Gill has been kept and be assured that he is not being tortured.
The former minister maintained the law has been violated by maltreating their party member. "The government leaders should be investigated and questioned too," he demanded.
"The police were provided Gill's physical remand so they could get a statement from him. They are abusing him," Umar reiterated.
In a Twitter post, PTI leader Shireen Mazari said: "The regime change conspirators are getting desperate to try and get something against Imran Khan, and now using Shahbaz Gill by torturing him to force false statements."
She said Gill has so far resisted despite "extreme torture", first when he was "abducted to an unknown location", and later at a CIA cell.
She further stated that remand into police custody after grant of judicial remand is a "rare" occurrence.
"Pakistan's descent into fascism is happening at a furious pace but we will resist it to the full," she added.
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