ISLAMABAD: A brother of Shahbaz Gill on Thursday filed a complaint against Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry for remanding him in police custody.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had earlier warned the ADSJ of consequences.

Yaseen Gill filed the complaint with the chief justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the member of the court’s inspection team (MIT).

Kohsar police arrested Mr Gill on August 9 and the judicial magistrate remanded his custody to police till August 12. The police requested the magistrate to extend the remand order, however, he was sent to judicial lockup.

Advocate General Islamabad Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon filed a revision petition before Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Mohammad Adnan which was dismissed.

When the matter was taken to the IHC, acting Chief Justice Justice Aamer Farooq remanded the matter back to the sessions court with the direction to decide the revision petition in accordance with the law.

ADSJ Chaudhry in a subsequent hearing granted two days’ remand of Mr Gill to the police.

However, after she passed the remand order, her order was criticised in social media and ultimately the PTI chairman at two public speeches censured the judge as well as the police authorities.

Interestingly, the IHC acting chief justice disposing of the petition related to Mr Gill’s remand had also upheld the order of ADSJ Chaudhry.

Owing to ‘threatening’ speeches, Mr Khan was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) while IHC’s larger bench issued a show-cause notice over alleged contempt of the judge.

On Thursday, Mr Gill’s brother in the complaint leveled serious allegations against the lady judge.

It stated that she passed the order “on August 17, 2022 in grave violation and derogation of judicial norms, express provisions of law.”

It added: “the said act of conducting the proceedings by the learned ASJ Zeba Chaudhry is amounting to gross misconduct, illegality and mala fide intention committed by her since based on her grave incompetence, glaring negligence and noticeable partiality, violating the code of conduct of a judge, therefore, not covered under the umbrella of good faith or indemnity provided for the protection of a judicial officer.”

According to the complaint, ADSJ Chaudhry assumed jurisdiction of a judicial magistrate by grating Mr Gill’s remand since she could only refer the matter back to the judicial magistrate.

The complainant said the judge could have refused to hear the case in accordance with judicial norms and procedure, adding she was “acting with the investigation agency to destroy the evidence of their crime of inflicting third degree physical torture upon the accused [Gill] for the purpose of screening out the offenders from the charge of cognizable offences of hurt.”

It requested for taking “disciplinary action/proceedings against ADSJ Chaudhry for commission of misconduct.”

Gill files post-arrest bail

Shahbaz Gill filed a post-arrest bail in the case registered against him for allegedly inciting mutiny among armed forces.

Judicial magistrate Malik Aman on August 24 rejected the application of Islamabad police seeking further custody of Mr Gill on physical remand and sent him to Adiala Jail on judicial remand.

The court also issued notice to the police and sought the record.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2022