A local court in Islamabad on Saturday once again adjourned the hearing on a petition filed by incarcerated PTI leader Shahbaz Gill for seeking bail when police once more failed to produce record before the court. Additional Sessions Judge Tahir Mehmood Sipra heard the petition. During hearing, the police authorities told the court that they failed to contact the investigation officer of the case as his phone was switched off. The IO has reportedly been gone to Karachi to investigate another case. Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi contended if the IO even produced the police record today, he could not present his arguments as he first needed to read the record in order to prepare his arguments. He requested the court to put off the hearing till Monday. Raising objection to his request, Gill’s lawyer deplored the delay by police. However, Judge Sipra remarked that he was giving last chance to police while ordering them to produce record by Monday. On Friday, the police officer did not present the police record before the court citing the same reason regarding non-availability of the IO.

The judge then ordered the police to produce the record till Saturday by 12noon and warned that in case of non-compliance, their seniors would be summoned.The PTI leader, in his application, said that those who filed the case against him did so with a mala fide intent and out of political grudge. “My statement was twisted to implicate me in a false case,” he said, adding, “I am a professor and teach at foreign universities. And there was no justification for inserting the sections in the case registered against me.” Therefore, Gill added, his bail application should be accepted. On Wednesday, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had rejected the police’s request for an extension in the physical remand of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill and sent him to Adiala Jail on judicial remand. The Islamabad police had on August 9, arrested the PTI leader from the limits of Banigala police station after he made some seditious remarks against the Pakistan Army during a talk show on a private TV channel.

Credit:
Independent News Pakistan-INP