NEW DESK
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan Monday said that the authorities were misusing the terrorism law as they sought to target him just because he was seeking legal reprieve in the Shahbaz Gill case.
He said this while speaking to media outside the Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday. Imran had appeared before the court to seek an extension in his bail.
Standing on the steps of the court, the former premier said the world was mocking the incumbent government for nominating him in a terrorism case even though all he had done was seek legal reprieve against the court’s decision of granting physical remand of Gill after evidence of torture emerged.
“This is an insult to Pakistan and its terrorism law!” he exclaimed, reminding the government that it had international obligations to clamp down against custodial torture.
“After this [terrorism] case, everyone has forgotten about the custodial torture borne by Shahbaz Gill,” he said maintaining that everyone around the world condemns it. He once again alleged that his chief of staff suffered sexual torture while in custody.
The PTI chief lamented that Gill was sent back on physical remand even after the jail superintendent allegedly confessed to custodial torture ‘of all sorts’. He stated that Gill, accused of sedition by the authorities, was a university professor who is neither a terrorist nor a murderer, yet he is subject to the worst forms of torture.
