Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi was arrested on Tuesday as the crackdown against the party’s leadership and supporters continues.

According to the party, the former interior minister was “picked up” from Islamabad allegedly along with his wife.

“Ex-interior minister Shehryar Afridi has been picked up this time, not alone but along with his wife who has no political affiliation. This is happening under the current fascist regime,” informed PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s official Twitter account.

The former interior minister was reportedly arrested under Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance 1960, which enables the government to arrest persons “acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety”. Afridi’s is the latest in the series of arrests of PTI leadership. In the aftermath of widespread rioting and protests following former prime minister and PTI Chairperson Imran Khan’s controversial arrest last week, several party leaders including Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmeen Rashid, Shireen Mazari and Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan have been taken into custody.

While some party leaders have been granted relief by the courts, others remain in custody. Scores of civilians, including women, accused of rioting and vandalism after Imran’s arrest have also been rounded up by the authorities from different parts of the country in the past week.

Meanwhile, the PTI senior leader Shireen Mazari was arrested again by police shortly after her release from Adiala Jail, the former minister’s daughter said on Tuesday.

“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, said in a tweet.

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

The official Twitter account of the PTI also tweeted that Mazari and Senator Falak Naz had been rearrested. There has so far been no official confirmation from the police or the government of the former minister being arrested again. The PTI leader’s reported arrest comes hours after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered her release after the Islamabad police arrested her in a raid at her residence last week. Police said the former human rights minister was arrested under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (3MPO) on May 12.

Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb of the IHC heard the case earlier today and was presented with material related to the arrest by the Islamabad police.

Justice Aurangzeb, after reading the report, remarked that Mazari was “very ill” and said that the report had “nothing” in it regarding her arrest. He told the Islamabad attorney general that he was tired of hearing Article 245 of the Constitution.

Subsequently, the court ordered Mazari’s release and annulled the district magistrate’s orders for her arrest. The IHC maintained that the former minister would not violate Section 144 of the Constitution. To this, the advocate general contended that “nowadays everything is on the internet” and Mazari could start writing there. However, Justice Aurangzeb stated that he will write regarding tweets in his order as well. He remarked that the manner in which PTI chief Imran Khan was arrested showed the conduct of the government.

Moreover, the high court also ordered the release of PTI Senator Falak Naz and nullified the district magistrate’s instructions to detain her.