Gill ‘torture’, Adiala controversy: PIMS terms Gill fit and healthy

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday directed the inspector general of police (IGP) Islamabad to submit a detailed report regarding the alleged torture of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill in police custody, and the controversy that took place at Adiala Jail over the custody of the accused.

The court also allowed Shahbaz Gill’s lawyers to meet him at the health facility where he was undergoing medical treatment.

IHC Acting Chief Justice Amir Farooq presided over the case and allowed Gill’s lawyers to meet him after they said they were restrained from meeting their client earlier Thursday morning. On Wednesday, a district and sessions court ordered Gill — who has been behind bars since August 9 — into police custody for a further 48 hours. However, PTI challenged the case in the IHC.

Following the order of the remand’s extension, the PTI leader’s condition started to deteriorate and after hours-long drama, he was shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) from Adiala Jail.

During the proceedings, Inspector-General Islamabad Police Akbar Nasir Khan rejected the allegations that the PTI leader was tortured in police custody. “What happened when Shahbaz Gill’s medical examination was conducted at PIMS hospital?” Justice Farooq asked. At this, IGP Khan said that the medical reports showed that the PTI leader had difficulty in breathing.

Advocate General Islamabad Barrister Jahangir Jadoon, who was present at the IHC hearing to assist the court, also noted that Gill had initially refused to undergo a medical examination. “There is hue and cry that [Gill] was tortured. So is this a hype created by the media, or is there any truth in it? We have to find this out,” Justice Farooq said.

Justice Farooq asked whether Gill informed the magistrate at the district and sessions court that he was tortured. In response, Special Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi told the judge that the PTI leader did not say any such thing. “So where is the petitioner now?” Justice Farooq asked.

At this, Gill’s counsel Faisal Chaudhry told the judge that Gill was currently at PIMS where he was unconscious. Chaudhry chided the special prosecutor and told him that he should not be issuing statements on behalf of the jail administration.

“I was not allowed to meet him today morning at the PIMS hospital.” The judge, in response, told Faisal Chaudhry that his client’s remand case was being heard only because he was a political personality. Otherwise, there are several similar cases which aren’t taken up at the high court, the judge added.

The judge then asked IGP Islamabad what steps he will take next amid the allegations that the PTI leader was tortured. “We do not trust them,” Gill’s lawyers said about the police officer. At this, Justice Farooq asked them to refrain from saying things at once as it was not a “circus”.

The judge then issued a show-cause notice to Adiala Jail administration taking him into custody later than the ordered time. Faisal Chaudhry requested the judge allow Gill’s lawyers to meet him, which the judge accepted. Justice Farooq told him that the order would be issued shortly.

The PTI lawyers requested for suspending the order of the remand, but the IHC judge extended it to Monday and adjourned the hearing to the same date. Meanwhile, a four-member medical board examined Shahbaz Gill on Thursday and submitted a report to a court, stating that the PTI leader was suffering from phobia, anxiety and asthma. The police submitted the report to Deputy Judge Judicial Raja Farrukh Ali Khan’s court, said a press release issued here. A panel of four senior doctors conducted a medical examination of Shahbaz Gill and prepared the medical report.

The medical board was constituted for treatment of Shahbaz Gill, a day after he was shifted to the hospital for his medical tests before being handed over to the Islamabad police on physical remand. The board included specialist doctors in cardiology, pulmonology, medicine, neurology and other disciplines.

The medical board unanimously recommended that Shahbaz Gill should be monitored further and assessed by specialists. He is at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where he was brought from Adiala Jail.

The medical board unanimously concluded in a post-examination report that the patient needed monitoring and assessment by cardiologists and pulmonologists. In the report that was submitted to a court, board members Prof Lal Rehman, Dr Ali Miraj Shami, Prof SH Waqar, and Prof Shajee A Siddiqui said that Gill “may need further investigations if required”.

The report also said that Gill “is a known case of asthma since childhood and has been on inhaled bronchodilators when required, now presented with shortness of breath, body aches, including left shoulder, back, neck, fight gluteal region and left-sided chest pain”.

Meanwhile, sources at PIMS said on Thursday morning that Gill’s health was now satisfactory. Talking to the media personnel outside the hospital last night, PTI Punjab leader Ejaz Chaudhry said: “Who will be responsible if something happens to Shahbaz Gill?”

Separately, Punjab Home Minister Col (retd) Hashim Dogar alleged on Thursday that Shahbaz Gill was “treated worse than animals” when he was in police custody. While talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly, he said: “Shahbaz Gill is in depression” and the police were waiting for an unfortunate incident to take place. He said Gill was imprisoned in a small cell, and he got sacred when he was told that he was again being given in the police custody.

Hashim Dogar said Gill “faces a serious threat to his life”, and so he appealed to the higher judiciary to intervene “for the sake of human rights”. Meanwhile, the federal government quarters engaged in investigating Shahbaz Gill claimed on Thursday that the accused of sedition was deliberately administered a heavy dose of steroids for avoiding his grilling.

Sources said the Punjab government was making all-out attempts to damage the case and destroy the evidence of sedition as well as foreign funding case, which existed in the mobile-phone and laptop, which were in the custody of the driver of Shahbaz Gill.

The Punjab establishment was also helping the suspect in misguiding the court for avoiding the remand in police custody for further interrogation. An intelligence agency source claimed that a steroid injection (hydrocortisone sodium succinate) was administered to Shahbaz Gill by the doctors of Adiala Jail before handing him over to the Islamabad Police late Wednesday night to induce symptoms of heart disorder HRCT, but both are found clear in the test report. “The jail authorities deliberately administered heavy dose of the steroid for the purpose of getting Gill admitted to a hospital to avoid investigation,” the source said, saying the steroid is identified as ‘the magic injection’ popularly used to obtain such purposes.

Symptoms appeared in the body indications confirms that Shahbaz Gill was injected heavy dose of steroid before leaving the jail. The steroid, especially when given in high dose, has documented heart-related side effects.

The PIMS Medical Board, meanwhile, declared that Shahbaz Gill was medically fit and healthy.According to sources, he could be discharged from the hospital anytime.