Liaquat Ali, father of Ali Bilal aka Zille Shah, has said that he is under no threats or pressures and is afraid that the PTI’s version could turn out to be ‘political point scoring’.

Speaking on Aaj News show Faisla Aap Ka, Liaquat recounted the story of how he found out about his son’s death and what happened immediately afterwards.

He also revealed that he was made to wait two and a half hours to meet Imran Khan when he was taken to his Zaman Park residence as his son’s body was still at the Services Hospital.

The phone call

Liaquat Ali said that Bilal would routinely reach out to him on the phone. But on the fateful day when his phone rang between 4:35pm and 4:36pm he could not answer it himself.

Instead, it was his other son, Ali Usman, who answered the phone. Bilal told him that he had been arrested but he would return on his own. He also asked Usman not to tell his parents.

However, Usman did tell his father who replied that political workers were being arrested due to section 144 and Bilal would be back soon. Then around 7:15pm, the phone rang again but it was a different voice this time.

The voice told Liaquat that there was shocking news for him, his son had been killed.

At first, Liaquat said, he refused to believe it and even though it might be a rumour being spread on social media. But he went outside his house to find that a crowd had gathered and people were showing him images of Ali Bilal on his phone. One even showed him an image of Bilal’s CNIC that had been shown on the TV.

Liaquat said that it was during this time that some people from PTI came and told him his son’s body was at Services Hospital. They then took him with them, saying Dr Yasmin Rashid had called him

The meeting with Imran Khan

Liaquat said that the people from PTI had told him that he was being taken to Services Hospital, but he was taken to Zaman Park where he was made to wait for two and a half hours before he met Imran Khan.

At that time, Liaquat said, the version going around was that Ali Bilal had died due to police violence. He also said that PTI already knew about the death as Hammad Azhar had tweeted about it.

He said his mental state did not permit him to piece together things on his own at the time. He said that Imran Khan told him that the party’s medical and legal team would help him and that they would get justice for his son.

The police complaint

He said that the PTI workers then took him to Race Course Police Station. He said that the legal team wrote the application nominating IG, DIG, chief minister and federal interior minister. Liaquat says that it was at this moment that he gained back some of his composure and realised things were going in the wrong direction. This could be political point scoring, Liaquat thought.

He said that he realised that he had no idea how the death had actually occurred, so he went on TV and said that he would not stand with the names that PTI had nominated.

Approach by police

He then said that he had approached SSP Kishwar who had a laptop with him. He showed Liaquat some data about his son’s death, but Liaquat said it was still incomplete.

He said he told the SSP that he could say nothing for certain until the investigation was completed. He said that even his FIR had not been entertained and he did not even have a single scrap of paper in his possession. He said he sat there for eight to ten hours and then started preparing for a post-mortem examination.

However, he said that he had no complaints again any member of the government or administration and was under no threats or pressure. He also added that he was confident that the government’s investigation would lead them to the culprit.