hahbaz Gill, a close aide of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), who was recently ousted as prime minister following a successful vote of no confidence against him in the National Assembly, has landed in troubled waters for his controversial remarks that have made headlines across the country.

Islamabad police arrested Shahbaz Gill, the chief of staff of PTI chairman Imran Khan, on his way to Khan’s House in Banigala, Islamabad on August 9. A video clip circulating on social media shows a police official, his face covered, trying to open the door of Gill’s car in an attempt to get him out of the vehicle.

A day earlier, in an interview on a private television channel, Gill appeared to be trying to encourage soldiers to disobey ‘wrong’ orders of the top-brass. The statement sparked a controversy, being termed anti-army and resulting in Gill being charged with sedition. The news channel on which the interview was aired was also put off-air.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that Gill’s arrest was in accordance with the law on sedition and incitement against state institutions. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) also deemed the remarks “highly hateful and seditious”. The federal government has alleged that Gill’s statement on the news channel was pre-planned and scripted.

Imran Khan described Gill’s arrest as an “abduction” and has vowed to pursue the matter in the courts. The PTI has claimed that Gill was tortured in police custody and pressured to confess that his remarks were made on the direction of the party chief.

Last week saw a tug of war between Islamabad law enforcement and the Punjab Police over Gill’s custody. The episode ended after the federal government reportedly decided to send paramilitary force to secure Gill’s custody, compelling prison authorities to hand him over to Islamabad police.

In recent days PTI’s leaders have avoided directly accusing the military establishment of playing a role in the alleged conspiracy to remove Khan from premiership. The posture was different from that of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), which when the party was ousted from power alleged that political engineering had resulted in Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification. Nawaz Sharif, and other hardline party leaders, openly accused the military establishment of masterminding a conspiracy to oust him from power. The PML-N also alleged that the 2018 general elections that brought Khan to power were engineered and managed by the military establishment. Spokespersons for the military have denied these allegations. Some PML-N leaders, including Javed Latif, have faced sedition charges for speaking against the military establishment.

The PTI has also been indirectly pointing fingers towards the military establishment for not helping the party remain in power and for instead supporting the opposition. This narrative is seen as having helped Khan regain his popularity among the masses.

The PTI leadership has officially distanced itself from Gill’s statement saying that his remarks do not reflect party policy and that Gill should not have said what he did. However, the party is supporting Gill and saying that the matter should be dealt strictly legally. It has particularly condemned the alleged use of torture to extort a statement to corner the PTI.

The current PTI stance on Gill’s statement indicates that the party no longer wants to openly blame the military establishment for its ouster. However, the ruling coalition will likely not let go of the matter easily. Separately, military quarters are also pursuing those involved in social media campaigns against the army, allegedly being run by some of the PTI social media activists.

An Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement has condemned the propaganda that hurt the sentiments of the families of the martyrs in a recent helicopter crash. Among others, the helicopter was carrying a senior general. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has alleged that a negative social media campaign targetting the army helicopter that crashed amid flood relief operations in Balochistan was being run by the PTI. For its part, the PTI has accused the PML-N of using its strategic media cell to malign the party.

The PTI is trying to avoid harmful confrontation with the military establishment. Despite its recent success in the Punjab by-elections, it perhaps believes that no party can survive without the backing of the establishment.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at @waqargillani