The PTI leadership has reacted strongly to the Islamabad district and sessions court’s approval of a police request for physical remand of party member Shahbaz for 48 hours in a sedition case filed against him.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan condemned the sessions court’s decision, saying that he is concerned about Gill being sent into police custody once more.

“Gill is in a fragile state of mental and physical health because of the torture inflicted upon him when he was abducted and taken to an undisclosed location,” Imran wrote on Twitter.

He said that Gill’s remand is a “part of the conspiracy to target me and PTI by forcibly getting false statements against us similar to what they have been doing against social media activists”.

The PTI chairman vowed to take legal and political action to counter the “extra-constitutional and extra-legal actions being devised against us”.

‘Utter destruction of human rights in Pakistan’ — Fawad Chaudhry

Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry also criticised the order and said that “judges sending political workers in remand for torture while knowing everything are criminals”.

Fawad said that there is no parallel to the way human rights are being “utterly destroyed” in Pakistan. He said that Gill is being sent into police custody for “torture” instead of interrogation.

‘Laws should be equal for everyone’ — Faisal Javed

Senator Faisal Javed Khan said that the authorities may take action against Gill as he “made a huge mistake”.

He, however, said that the laws “should be equal for everyone”.

“We condemn the treatment meted out at Gill and this House should also condemn it,” Javed said in a speech in Senate.

More to follow.