ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered an investigation into the controversial arrest of a former human rights minister over a decades-old land dispute.
Chief Justice Ather Minallah late Saturday ordered the probe in response to a petition from the daughter of former minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MP Shireen Mazari.
Minallah questioned the decision by officials in Islamabad to allow police from Punjab to make the arrest in the capital.
Mazari, who served in the cabinet-level position under former prime minister Imran Khan, had been detained by police near her Islamabad home earlier in the day.
PTI senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry alleged that Mazari, who was born in 1966, had been politically targeted by the administration of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif under the guise of a land dispute dating back to 1972.
Hours after Mazari’s arrest, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz ordered her release and late Saturday she was brought to the court for an urgent hearing. She was then released.
Mazari has been critical of Sharif’s government on Twitter since Khan’s government was toppled in a no-confidence vote last month. Khan’s party lawmakers resigned from National Assembly in protest and Khan is mobilising supporters through public rallies across the country to pressure the government into early elections.
