• Shahbaz Gill maintains that case against him is based on “distorted” bits of his remarks.
• Says basis of sedition case is “malafide intent” and “political malice”.
• Contends case not admissible against him under treason sections.

Senior PTI leader Shahbaz Gill on Thursday filed a plea seeking bail in the sedition case filed against him, in a district and sessions court in Islamabad where the case is currently under trial.

Advocate Faisal Chaudhry and others in PTI’s legal team filed the plea on Gill’s behalf. The plea stated that the case against Gill is based on “malafide intent” and “political malice”.

“I have passed out from the best universities and have been teaching in American and European varsities. Bits of my remarks [made during live TV programme were distorted and included in the FIR,” Gill stated in the plea. He argued that a case under sections of treason is not admissible against him.

The PTI has repeatedly demanded that the party leader be released on bail, alleging that he faced humiliation, torture and sexual abuse in police custody.

Islamabad court sends Shahbaz Gill back to jail

Gill is currently in prison on judicial remand after the trial court remanded him into judicial custody over the police’s request for an extension in his physical remand in both the sedition case and a separate arms recovery case.

Gill was arrested on August 9 in Islamabad after a sedition case was filed against him for inciting mutiny within the Pakistan Army. He has since been back-and-forth in police custody and at the PIMS hospital.

He was already facing sedition charges, but the Islamabad police — a day earlier — also registered a case against the PTI leader over possession of an illegal weapon.

He was booked in the new case after police raided the incarcerated PTI leader’s room in Parliament Lodges late Monday — where they recovered weapons, a satellite phone, and foreign currency.

Gill, during the raid at his Parliament Lodge’s residence, also told journalists that he had been “sexually assaulted”.

The party leader claimed that he was “denied treatment for asthma”; however, the federal government and police have refuted the allegations.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded an immediate, independent, and transparent investigation into the alleged torture of Gill in police custody.