PTI’s Shireen Mazari arrested again after release on LHC orders

LAHORE:

Punjab police has arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and former human rights minister Dr Shireen Mazari once again, moments after she was released from Adiala Jail on Monday on orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC), Express News reported.

This incident marks the fourth time in ten days that Mazari has been taken into custody by Punjab police, and the second time that she has been apprehended immediately after being released from jail, courtesy of a court order.

Expressing his bewilderment at the arrest, Barrister Ahsan J Pirzada revealed that the PTI leader’s current whereabouts are unknown to her family.

“72 year old Dr. Shireen Mazari arrested by Punjab Police for the fourth time in 10 days. We have no idea where they have taken her. This is the second time she has been arrested from outside Adiala Jail as soon as the Court ordered her release,” the lawyer said in a tweet reshared by Mazari’s daughter, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir.

Earlier on Monday, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued an order to release the former human rights minister.

Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz presided over the hearing of the petition filed against the detention of the former minister where Mazari’s lawyers Barrister Shoaib Razak and Aneeq Khatana appeared in court, while her daughter Imaan Mazari was also present.

The court had ordered not to rearrest Mazari if she is not named in any case and directed the senior politician to submit an affidavit to the deputy commissioner, stating that she will not be involved in any such activity in the future.

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Speaking to the media, Imaan said that her mother had already been arrested three times in a week but today the court annulled the second MPO order for her mother. “The government should think and not destroy homes like this,” she added.

The ex-minister’s daughter further said that she has nothing to do with PTI but “it is a pity that party chief Imran Khan has forgotten the workers and leadership”.

On May 12, Mazari was arrested after the Islamabad police raided her house. Her arrest came after a series of arrests of several other PTI leaders, including Imran Khan, Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Omer Cheema, Ali Mohammad Khan, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry and others.

All of these leaders other than Imran were arrested under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).

On May 16, Mazari was arrested again by police shortly after her release from Adiala Jail.

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“Senator Falak Naz’s family and I (& our lawyer) were waiting outside Adiala Jail to receive ama [my mother] and [Senator] Falak Naz. Islamabad Police arrested them from outside the jail while we were waiting outside the exit they told us to wait at,” Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, daughter of the former human rights minister, had said in a tweet.

“We have no idea where they have been taken,” she had added.

A local court in Islamabad had then ordered Mazari’s release but the former human rights minister was arrested two days later for the third time.