ISLAMABAD: A court in the federal capital Wednesday morning approved a two-day physical remand of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill in a sedition case.
The case hearing took place amid strict security arrangements, with duty magistrate Umar Shabbir ordering police to produce the PTI leader before the court on Friday.
During the proceedings, police requested for remand as they still need to recover Gill’s mobile phone and the device he used to make the statements.
“We also need to investigate on whose behest was the program aired,” the police told the judge.
Faisal Chauhdry, Gill’s counsel, told the judge that the program was not aired on anyone’s directives.
What are the violations against Shahbaz Gill?
- 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention)
- 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment)
- 120 (concealing design to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment)
- 121 (waging war against state)
- 124-A (sedition)
- 131 (abetting mutiny, or attempting to seduce a soldier, sailor or airman from his duty)
- 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot)
- 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups)
- 505 (statement conducing to public mischief)
- 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation)
Gill says he is ‘not ashamed’
Gill, ahead of being presented before the court, told journalists that he was not “ashamed” of the statement that he made on the private television channel.
“There was nothing in my statement that I am ashamed of my statement was of a person who loves his armed forces,” the ex-special assistant to the prime minister said.
The PTI leader said he did not attempt to provoke anyone and that he was only pointing towards bureaucrats who were involved in “wrongdoings”.
Comments part of ‘planned conspiracy’
In a press conference Tuesday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had said Gill’s comments were a part of a planned conspiracy to create division within the military.
The interior minister said that the comments were according to the script prepared under the supervision of Khan, which was carried forward by former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and Gill.
“Khan is working on a narrative after realising that he had been trapped in the foreign funding and Toshakhana reference,” the interior minister said, adding that this conspiracy was plotted to divert public attention from their [PTI] wrongdoings.
“The sentences that were said are such that I think it is not in the national interest to repeat them,” he stated, claiming that the PTI leader went to the extent of “leading people towards rebellion” and “inciting mutiny and sedition within the institution”.
