PTI leader Shireen Mazari arrested in Islamabad: police

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister and senior PTI leader Shireen Mazari has been arrested by Punjab’s anti-corruption department, Islamabad Police said Saturday.

According to a private news channel, the PTI leader was taken into custody in a case related to the encroachment of a piece of land in District Rajanpur, filed in 1972.

‘My mother has been kidnapped’

Speaking to journalists, Mazari’s daughter, Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, confirmed the development saying that “male police officers have beaten and taken her mother away.”

She warned the new government that she would not “spare any of them if something happens to her mother.”

“I was only told that the anti-corruption wing has arrested my mother,” she said, adding that her mother was arrested without prior notice to the family.

“If this government does such a thing then I will follow them,” she said, adding her mother wasn’t arrested but she would call this a “kidnapping incident”.

As against Imaan’s claim that male officers had arrested her mother, footage aired on a private news shows several female police officials present at the site of the arrest, trying to drag Mazari out of her car after she started resisting the arrest.

‘Anarchy’

Speaking to a private news channel, former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed said: “They [the new government] is pushing the country towards anarchy.”

He further said that the authorities have prepared a list of people who are to be arrested as new IGs have been appointed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

“Shireen Mazari’s arrest is the first step in this regard,” he said, warning that PTI Chairman Imran Khan “could be the next one to be arrested”.

‘Cowardly act’

Condemning the incident, former governor Sindh Imran Ismail said: “The arrest of Mazari is a sign that the imported government is bewildered”.

“The imported government is making the situation complicated itself.”

Meanwhile, former minister for parliamentary affairs Ali Mohammad Khan termed the incident a “cowardly act” of the coalition government.

“The government is not just nervous, it is extremely nervous,” he maintained.

The case

Meanwhile, Geo News has obtained the details of the case filed at the request of Deputy Commissioner Rajanpur, according to which the Anti-Corruption Establishment Punjab registered the case on the complaint of Assistant Commissioner Rajanpur.

Mazari is accused of encroaching upon a piece of land. A complaint was lodged against her on March 11, 2022, while AC Rajanpur was directed to inquire into the matter.

The concerned official prepared the report of the case on April 8 and in the light of this, the Anti-Corruption Establishment registered a criminal case under its Rules 2014.

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