The PTI and government trade barbs on Sunday in separate press conferences following developments after the arrest of former’s Shahbaz Gill by the Islamabad Police on charges of sedition and inciting people.

“Pakistan’s politics infected with ‘lumpy skin’ disease,” PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad after Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah addressed a presser in which the government claimed Gill suffered no torture in police custody.

Lumpy skin disease is a transboundary high-impact cattle pox disease characterised by fever, skin and visceral nodules, according to the OIE-World Organisation for Animal Health. Lumpy skin disease virus shares the genus Capripoxvirus (CaPV) (family poxviridae) with sheeppox virus and goatpox virus. The disease was spreading fast ahead of Eid in Pakistan.

He alleged that such a disease was damaging the country’s politics since the coalition government came into power.

Sanaullah rejected PTI claims of torture of accused Gill in police custody, saying that no evidence was found in the inquiry. He claimed that the Punjab government is responsible if Shahbaz suffered torture in jail.

Fawad said that if Gill did not suffer any claim then why the coalition government was running away from the investigation, reiterating his demand for forming an independent commission to ascertain the gravity of the situation.

He wondered if the police did not torture Gill then who did? PTI Chairman Imran while reacting to Gill’s appearance in front of an Islamabad court in a wheelchair on August 19 said that there was a general perception in the public at large and in their minds too as to who could have carried out the purported torture. “Remember the public will react. We will leave no stone unturned to find out those responsible & bring them to justice.”

He claimed that Sanaullah and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had used “harsh words” than Gill in the past. He shared an audio clip of the interior minister’s address to the Punjab Assembly. “I cannot even repeat such words and the army should listen to those speeches then place trust in them.”

Fawad lamented how Sanaullah, who himself has been subjected to apparent torture, should make such comments about Gill’s prevailing situation. “He learned nothing.”

The PTI leader rejected the government’s interpretation of Imran’s announcement to move a court against the Islamabad IG, DIG, and magistrate. It was not a threat but a decision to take legal action for not fulfilling their responsibilities, Fawad explained it.

“We have filed cases,” he said, adding that any judge who does not stand and consider torture a serious issue then they should not serve as a jurist.

He was of the view that if the apparent videos as presented by the government were true then it was a good sign for them, however, he added that despite such reports the government did not allow PTI chief Imran and lawyers to meet Gill.

“Torture is unacceptable in any form. Our red line is there cannot be any torture of political prisoners,” he said, announcing that the government has started an administrative inquiry against the judge.

He announced that the party would announce its next course of action on September 10 and warned the government against instigating the PTI.