ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Dr Shireen Mazari has been reportedly taken away by unidentified personnel outside a court in Gujrat following her release ordered by Judicial Magistrate. This marks her arrest for the fifth time following the violent turn of events after the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan on May 9.
As per the media reports, Mazari was presented before the court in a case pertaining to inciting party supporters in Kharian on May 9. Mazari’s lawyer Advocate Faraz Ahmed told Kharian Judicial Magistrate Akhtar Ali that the PTI leader never participated in any protests and cited the lack of evidence on the police’s part. However, moments after a court in Gujrat ordered her release, PTI leader Shireen Mazari was taken away in a Vigo without a number plate.
Earlier on Monday, the former minister was released from the Adiala Jail on the orders of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench. As soon as she left the premises, Mazari was again arrested by police and taken to a location unknown at that time. This was the fourth time that she had been arrested in a span for less than two weeks.
Her lawyer had then informed that it was the second time in a row that Mazari was arrested after being released from Adiala Jail on court’s order.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued a notice of contempt to the federal capital’s inspector general (IG) in a plea related to Mazari’s arrest. The court was hearing a plea wherein the petitioner requested for Islamabad IGP to be made party to the case. Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb accepted the plea and issued notice to the IGP. The hearing was adjourned till May 25.
The former federal minister has been put through multiple arrests in recent days under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance 1960. Her daughter, human rights lawyer and activist, Imaan Mazari, who is also representing the former minister has accused the authorities of torture and violation of rights.
PTI chairperson and former prime minister Imran Khan condemned Mazari’s arrest and said that this was merely an attempt to “break her spirit”.