ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minllah late Saturday night ordered immediate release of PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari and directed the federal government to carry out a judicial inquiry into her arrest.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minllah was hearing Shireen Mazari arrest case after she was produced on the court’s directives at 11:30PM.
The court ordered the federal government to devise ToRs for the Judicial Commission to investigate arrest of Shireen Mazari.
“The court will never compromise on its jurisdiction. This country has a Constitution for running the state affairs and everyone will have to obey and respect this”, the court observed.
The IHC CJ noted that the arrest was apparently “illegal”, and ordered immediate release of Mazari. The court asked the authorities to return cellphone of the former federal minister to her.
The court also ordered the Islamabad Police IG to take action against the police officials involved in the arrest.
Earlier, talking to reporters on the premises of Islamabad High Court, Shireen Mazari held Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah responsible for her “unwarranted arrest.”
“I don’t know who ordered my arrest but I heard the officers, taking me to Lahore, that Shehbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah are behind my arrest”, she explained.
She said she was tortured and kept in isolation. “I will tell everyone how i was manhandled, dragged from my car and whisked away to Lahore. They also snatched my cellphone.”
In the meanwhile, Imaan Mazari hugged her mother and wept. To a question about arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Shireen Mazari said that how many people the government will arrest? adding that the entire nation has come out and will sweep away the “imported government.”
Earlier Saturday morning, senior PTI leader and former federal minister for human rights Shireen Mazari was manhandled and arrested from outside her residence in Islamabad by police officials.
According to footage of the incident, went viral on social media, Mazari could be seen being dragged out of a car by female police personnel and she could be heard protesting: “No. Don’t touch me.”
Unidentified voices in the footage could be heard telling her that “there is no issue” and the matter could be discussed “peacefully”. “You are using violence. Don’t you take my phone.”
In tweet, her daughter Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir claimed that her mother was “beaten and taken away by male police officers”, adding: “All I have been told is that Anti-Corruption Wing Lahore has taken her.”
Later, officials of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) confirmed Mazari’s arrest.
The Islamabad police, however, refuted Mazari’s daughter claim, saying: “Dr Shireen Mazari was arrested by female police officers as per the law on the request of the anti-corruption department, terming reports of any mishandling is baseless.”
IHC MOVED AGAINST MAZARI’S ARREST
Soon after the incident, Iman Mazari, daughter of Shireen, filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the arrest. Through, the petition, she requested the court to accept her plea and order production of her mother at the earliest.
She also requested the high court to restrain the law enforcement agencies from “extending threats” to the petitioner and her family.
“It is in the public knowledge that the petitioner’s mother was a furious critic of the violation of human rights in the hands of the law enforcement agencies. It is also on record that petitioner and her mother were often made target for their bold and straightforward stance with regard to human rights violations in the country,” the petition said.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah was at his residence when he was informed about the urgent nature of the petition.
The IHC reopened outside its usual working hours after Mazari’s daughter Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir filed a petition against her mother’s arrest.
The high court in a three-page order, said that when it has already given orders that no MNA can be arrested without the permission of the Speaker of the National Assembly, and since Mazari is still an MNA on account of not having been de-notified form her seat, then “under what authority of law the fundamental rights of Dr Shireen Mazari were violated?”.
The IHC issued directives for the interior secretary and also summoned Islamabad Inspector General of Police Dr Akbar Nasir Khan and Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon.
The court said that its order should also be sent to Islamabad Advocate General Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon and Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali.
ACE FIR AGAINST MAZARI
The first information report (FIR) registered against the former minister said during the scrutiny of record, it revealed that Shireen Mehrun Nisa Mazari with the connivance of revenue officials fraudulently and through bogus mutation transferred 800 Kanal land in favour of bogus company namely M/s Progressive Farms Limited.
Furthermore, the FIR said the Federal Land Commission in its report declared this mutation bogus. “During the perusal of record, it revealed that land measuring 1,386 Acres of Mst. Shireen Mehr-un-Nisa Mazari was surrendered to Provincial Govt through Land Commission. In Mutation No. 39 dated 05.07.1973, there is cutting and tempering.”
PTI SUBMITS APPLICATION FOR FIR
Meanwhile, PTI leaders including Asma Qadeer, Zille Huma and Anita Mehsood filed an application with the Kohsar Police for the registration of an FIR against Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz for “what they dubbed Shireen Mazari’s kidnapping”.
In the application, the PTI leaders stated that according to the rules, the Punjab ACE official had to record details of their arrival and departure from the capital at the Kohsar police station, since Islamabad does not fall in the remit of Punjab province.
They, in the application, held Hamza Shehbaz responsible for the “entire incident”. They requested the police to register an FIR against those responsible, who can be seen in the video, and Hamza Shehbaz for this illegal action and “kidnapping of Shireen Mazari.”
Outside the Kohsar police station, a visibly distraught Imaan gave a brief statement to the media, in which she termed her mother’s detention a “kidnapping”.
“She was kidnapped — I won’t say she was arrested,” she said, standing alongside PTI senior leaders Fawad Chaudhry, Shehryar Afridi and Shibli Faraz.
“When someone is arrested, the police inform you on what charge [a person] is taken away for,” she added.
“I don’t know where she is. She has been forcibly disappeared by this government because they think women are soft targets.”
She then said: “I won’t spare anyone if anything happens to my mother.” She then walked away and said she would let the PTI officials speak.
GOVT HAS DECLARED WAR
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry has said PML-N led federal government has declared a war by arresting party leader Shireen Mazari from Islamabad.
Talking to the media outside Kohsar police station along with Imaan Mazari, Shibli Faraz and other PTI leaders, Fawad Chaudhry said they are ready for the war if the government wants it.
He said the Kohsar police are not giving them details about the whereabouts of the senior party leader. We don’t have any information about Mazari, he added.
CM HAMZA SHEHBAZ ORDERS MAZARI’S RELEASE
Hours after the arrest of Shireen Mazari, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz ordered her ‘immediate release.’
In a statement, the chief minister said that Shireen Mazari as a woman is respect worthy and he has ordered for her release. “Arrest of any woman does not hold compatibility with our moral values,” he said, adding that the investigation should also be made against the anti-corruption staff for arresting Dr Mazari.
Hamza also underscored that if the arrest is inevitable as a result of investigation then the law will take its own course. The Punjab CM said that he does not agree with the way Dr Mazari was whisked away by police, adding that PML-N as a political party believes in giving respect to the women.
Earlier in the day, former federal minister for information and broadcasting and PTI stalwart Fawad Chaudhry had revealed the news on his official Twitter account.
CONDEMNATIONS POUR IN
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan in a tweet stated that: “Our senior party leader Shireen Mazari has reportedly been violently abducted from outside her house by this fascist regime. Shireen is strong and fearless, if the imported govt thinks it can coerce her by this fascism, they have miscalculated!”
Imran lambasted the current government, saying that his party’s movement “is completely peaceful but this fascist imported govt wants to push the country towards chaos. As if sending the economy into tailspin wasn’t enough, they now want anarchy to avoid elections. Today we will protest and tmrw after CC meeting I’ll announce our Long March”.
Former federal minister for education, Shafqat Mehmood, termed the arrest a “brutal kidnapping”.
“She was manhandled and mistreated which is shameful,” the minister added, saying a protest will be held in Lahore against the PTI leader’s arrest.
Ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s chief of staff Shahbaz Gill also tweeted about the incident, asking all PTI workers to reach the Kohsar police station.
In another tweet, PTI leader Farrukh Habib hailed Mazari as a ‘strong voice’, who puts her opinion forward without ‘anyone’s fear’. He added that “this government has become fearful”. Habib further stated that “such tactics will not deter us”.
Former climate change minister Zartaj Gul Wazir also condemned her arrest. She said, “Pathetic tactics employed by state machinery to fight public rage. They’ve arrested Dr Shireen Mazari, ex Federal Minister for Human Rights!”
