Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shahbaz Gill seeks bail in sedition case

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 25 (ANI): Imran Khan’s close aide and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill on Thursday filed a bail petition in a sedition case, local media reported.
Shahbaz Gill, who is currently in jail on judicial remand on charges of sedition and inciting mutiny in the army, stated that the case against him was registered on a political basis and his remarks were distorted and taken in the wrong context, ARY News reported.
“I’m a professor and teaching students at various universities abroad,” Gill said adding that he is fixed in the case on the basis of ‘dishonesty’.
He pleaded with the court to grant him bail in the case, reported ARY News.
Earlier on Wednesday, a district and sessions court in Islamabad rejected a request by the capital police for yet another extension of seven days in the physical remand of PTI leader Gill.
The judgment came as the two-day physical remand of the PTI leader which was approved by the court last Wednesday expired, much later than the scheduled date as the court concluded at previous hearings that the remand began late and as such remained incomplete, the Dawn reported.
At the outset of the hearing, Shahbaz Gill was presented before the court amid tight security after the end of his two-day physical remand. The judgment was issued by Judicial Magistrate Malik Aman, who sent Gill on judicial remand.
During the hearing, the PTI leader’s lawyer, Faisal Chaudhry, told the court that he intended to get a power of attorney signed today. The judge, however, remarked that the power of attorney had been signed earlier.
He then asked the lawyer whether Gill had arrived in court. To that, Chaudhry replied in the negative and pointed out that the suspect was yet to reach even when it was past his scheduled time of arrival at 1 pm. He asked the court whether he should start his arguments, the Dawn reported.
The judge, however, pointed out that before the arguments it would have to be seen what was written by the investigating officer in the case file. “The file is not here yet,” he said.
Later, police produced Gill before the court and sought another seven days of his custody.
Gill was arrested on charges of colluding with a private Pakistani TV news channel in carrying out propaganda against the state. Police said that he was arrested for making statements against the state institutions and inciting the people to rebel.
The Pakistani publication claimed that the PTI leader had attempted to incite hatred in the Pakistan Army while speaking on ARY News a day prior, which has been restricted in certain parts of the country.
Amid the Pakistan government’s crackdown on private television broadcaster ARY News for carrying “anti-state propaganda”, the founder and CEO of the network Salman Iqbal along with two of its news anchors have been booked under sedition charges.
Gill was arrested by the police on August 9 after he made controversial remarks against the Pakistan army on television that were deemed as “highly hateful and seditious” by the country’s media authority. Imran’s close aide was arrested on charges of colluding with a private TV news channel in carrying out anti-state propaganda.
Notably, Pakistan’s regulatory watchdog PEMRA has alleged that the ARY News channel was airing “false, hateful and seditious” content based on “absolute disinformation with a clear and present threat to national security by instigating rebellion within the armed forces.” (ANI)