SC issue notice to federation, investigation officer in Shahbaz Gill’s custodial torture case
ISLAMABAD, Sep 16 (SABAH): The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday issued notices to the investigating officer and the federation on the appeals against the physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz Shabeer Gill.
A three-member bench presided by Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the case on Friday. Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail were part of the bench.
During the hearing, Justice Naqvi maintained that Gill should approach the relevant forum regarding the ‘custodial torture’ he faced and questioned who stopped him from filing his petition in the appropriate forum.
“Have the police never tortured anyone during the PTI government?” Justice Mandokhail asked.
Incidents of police violence rarely came to light during the former ruling party’s tenure, Gill’s lawyer Salman Safdar replied, claiming that the “most controversial remand in the country’s history” was given to the PTI leader.
Justice Naqvi further stated that the judge wrote in the detailed order that Gill’s body has marks of torture, and asked if the judge would also appear as a witness in the case of torture.
The court reprimanded Gill’s lawyer and questioned, “Why was the accused produced before the magistrate after 14 days?” Advocate Safdar replied that he was presented for trial.
Justice Naqvi maintained that the magistrate was the guarantor of the prisoner’s rights and that the lawyer was not even aware of that.
He further questioned if the Criminal Code applied to the apex court, to which Safdar answered in affirmative.
“The Criminal Code does not apply to the Supreme Court,” Justice Naqvi corrected and asked why the lawyer had not prepared for the case.
Subsequently, the court summoned the investigating officer with the record and adjourned the hearing for an indefinite period.