“Bilal Virk ex MNA PTI member was brutally tortured by Punjab Police when he went to file his nomination papers,” PTI leader Omar Ayub said in a post on X.

He shared a picture of Virk in which scars were seen on his head and his left eye was damaged. Ayub did not say when and where his fellow party member was attacked.

Post May 9, many PTI leaders have been arrested as part of the government’s crackdown on violent protesters who damaged state properties and vandalised military installations.

Ayub claimed that Virk’s brother was “abducted” and the Punjab Police were allegedly not registering any case. He wondered whether such treatment was a “level playing field”.

The PTI also spoke on the same wavelength while responding to Ayub’s post. The former ruling party claimed that their party leaders were being threatened to not contest elections.

Journalist Sabir Shakir, who in the past made claims related to the Cricket Australia, also shared the same picture and said the only crime the PTI leader committed was an “association with his party”.

But the PML-N denied all such claims as they shared posts from Virk’s Facebook account that showed that he had an accident earlier this month and was treated for it on December 8.

He also posted his picture on his Facebook account six days ago in which he was seen with the senior lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan.

It was further clarified by Virk’s wife Ayesha Manzoor Wattoo on social media that his husband was fine. “All the rumours that are being circulated on social media are fake and complete lies specially a picture of him with injured eye.”

While speaking about the viral picture, Ayesha said that her husband had an accident a few weeks ago and had minor eye surgery at the Hamid Lateef Hospital in Lahore. He has “now fully recovered Alhamdolillah,” she said.