SC constitutes bench to hear Gill's custodial torture plea

Three-member special bench to be led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial constituted a three-member special bench on Friday to hear Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill’s petition regarding alleged custodial torture.

The bench will be led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and includes Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.

Gill had challenged the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) order endorsing his two-day custody to the police despite allegations of torture.

The petition requested that the investigation in the case against Gill be declared illegal and unlawful for prosecution and be set aside straightaway for being violative.

Terming Gill’s physical custody “unconstitutional on account of breach of fundamental rights of life and dignity of a person”, the petition asked the Supreme Court to discharge Gill.

The plea further asked the apex court to declare the IHC’s order “illegal and unlawful”, and stated that it was a sheer disregard of Articles 9 and 10-A of the Constitution of Pakistan.

It maintained that the IHC had seemingly failed to protect the fundamental and human rights of the petitioner by remanding him to police custody after discovering that he was subjected to torture.

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According to the petition, Gill was subjected to "the most humiliating and degrading violence in police custody", and "sufficient evidence was placed before the learned bench, all of which was disregarded by the Court".

The petition stated, “Record was presented by Adiala Jail authorities who made it abundantly clear that the petitioner had bruises as well as bodily injuries when he was committed to judicial. Therefore, the decision handed down by the learned Islamabad High Court is liable to be set aside for being violative of Articles 9 and 10-A”.

“By ignoring and overlooking the medical evidence of custodial torture while handing back the remand of the petitioner to the local police authorities, the learned court has set a wrong precedence in the criminal jurisprudence of the country,” it furthered, adding that the IHC had indirectly approved a very dangerous and alarming precedent.

The petition highlighted that the report of the medical board comprising senior doctors and specialists also validated that the petitioner “is suffering from various ailments and diseases” but that the doctors were “pressurised to declare the petitioner as medically fit”.

“Even then the report declared that he was suffering from serious ailments,” the PTI leader maintained in his plea.

Advocate Salman Safdar and Chaudhry Faisal Hussain will appear on behalf of Gill.