Islamabad court issues Shahbaz Gill's non-bailable arrest warrant in sedition case

• Gill is due to appear in trial court for hearing of sedition case. 
• PTI leader's lawyer seeks his exemption from hearing. 
• Court rejects lawyer's request and cancels Shahbaz Gill's bail.

ISLAMABAD: A local court in the federal capital on Tuesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill in a sedition case registered against him. 

Gill, who is currently in the United States, is facing charges of sedition for inciting mutiny within the Pakistan Army through his remarks during a private TV channel show. 

A sedition and arms recovery case had been registered against Gill last year in August. He was arrested and stayed in detention for over a month but got released on bail from the Islamabad High Court, which restricted the authorities to arrest him.  

In March, the former special assistant to the prime minister flew to the US after his name was removed from the Exit Control List (ECL) as per the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC). 

He was allowed to travel abroad for one month but he later filed a new plea seeking an extension in his stay in the US.

Today, Gill's lawyer, Murtaza Toori, appeared before the trial court for a plea seeking the PTI leader's exemption from the hearing. 

Toori filed a request to become a party in the case, before the additional sessions judge, Tahir Abbas Supra, who was presiding over the hearing.

At the outset of the hearing, the prosecution represented by Prosecutor General Raja Rizwan Abbasi's junior lawyer moved the court to cancel Gill's bail.

The defence lawyer maintained that the duty magistrate had ordered that a relevant judge will announce the verdict on the plea for Gill's exemption from the hearing.

At this, the prosecution contended that the duty judge had ordered to announce the verdict today.

Later, the court cancelled Gill's bail and issued a non-bailable arrest of Gill while announcing a reserved verdict. 

The development comes days after the former federal minister registered himself as PTI's "foreign agent" in the United States. 

Gill registered himself as the party’s foreign agent under the US Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) and was issued a registration number by the US Department of Justice.