A district and sessions court of Islamabad has directed the Islamabad police to shift Shahbaz Gill to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for another medical examination, suspending the handing over of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader to police till Monday.
The court has concluded that the physical remand of PTI’s leader started from today morning when Gill was handed over to police by hospital authorities.
Shehbaz Gill was arrested after an FIR was registered against him. He was alleged to have incited mutiny among the armed forces.
Judicial Magistrate Raja Farrukh Ali Khan heard the case. The court reviewed if previous two-day remand of Shehbaz Gill had lapsed. The court observed that the investigating officer (IO) had asked the PIMS management for investigation at the hospital but was denied.
The court order has said that had the request of the IO been accepted, it could have been considered that the time for physical remand started when doctor granted permission. It further stated that physical remand would start at the time when the accused would be formally given to the IO. It also said that Gill was handed over formally into police custody at 7:15am today.
The court also observed that a physical examination of Gill had found him wheezing and experiencing shortness of breath. It also mentioned that Gill was provided an oxygen cylinder in the court room.
The order said that if the medical board of PIMS had concluded the accused to be fit to be discharged from hospital, then why was he brought on ambulance into the premises of court. It also said that the said fact alone was sufficient that neither the hospital authorities nor the police authorities were confident regarding his health.
It said that given the facts, it was not inclined to handover Gill to police custody today for 48 hours. The court suspended handing over Gill to police for completion of his two-day remand till Monday. It also rejected defence counsel’s request of considering remand time elapsed, declaring it “not tenable”. It also turned down request for registration of FIR over alleged torture in police custody.
The police’s request to extend physical remand to eight days was also questioned by court that why it was required to extend two-day remand to eight days.
Gill’s Lawyer Advocate Faisal Chaudhry contended that his client’s medical condition was there for everyone to see and further remand would endanger his life.
Gill called his medical report fake urging the court to seek his actual report.
Police prosecutor said that the law didn’t state that a sick person could not be remanded to police custody. He added that as the life of every suspect was precious, the investigating officer exercised caution.
Separately, in a tweet, Islamabad Police also alleged that Gill was pretending to be sick to create hurdles in the way of investigation.
