Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party's vice chairman and a close aide of former prime minister Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi was on Wednesday manhandled by police as they re-arrested him outside a jail for his alleged involvement in May 9 violence, a step termed illegal by him and his party.
Qureshi, 67, was set to be freed on Tuesday after securing bail from the Supreme Court in the cipher case but in a bizarre move, Pakistan police arrested and detained him under a colonial-era law that allows a government to arrest anyone if there was a threat of public disorder. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) released a video on X where Qureshi is seen being pushed and shoved by policemen after he was picked up right at the gate of the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi and packed off into an armoured police vehicle.
The footage of the incident also aired on multiple television and social media channels showed the former foreign minister, clad in a cardigan and a salwar kameez, loudly protesting the illegality of the police's actions, being shoved into an armoured police vehicle by officials wearing the Punjab police uniform. This treatment of an internationally respected senior politician with unparalleled service to Pakistan is a sign of the cowardice of the ruling elite. The law has been made a mockery and the basic constitutional rights of citizens are being blatantly violated, the party's post on X said, adding, Pakistani people will never forget this cruelty and injustice.
Qureshi was released from jail on bail after the Rawalpindi DC withdrew an order for detaining the ex-former foreign minister for 15 days under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) and added that police had not yet provided an official comment on the incident. Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan staged unprecedented attacks on military and government installations on May 9 after the PTI party chief was arrested in an alleged corruption case.
The PTI shared another video on Instagram that showed Qureshi attempting to speak to police personnel gathered outside the jail while he remained inside its premises. But as he reached the gate to get out of the prison, a contingent of Punjab police was there to arrest him in case of violence registered against him in the RA Bazar Police Station of Rawalpindi.
Qureshi tried to convince police that he had been given bail by the Supreme Court and he was free to go home. As he was making a statement, police personnel pushed him out of the prison gate and forcibly put him in an armoured vehicle. The former foreign minister kept shouting that he was being arrested in a bogus case and being politically victimised. Oppression, injustice. This is a mockery of the Supreme Court's order. I am being subjected to political victimisation without any reason, he added.
Look at this. What is this? Qureshi said as he was pushed the entire way to the van while the crowd yelled at officials to be careful. He was implicated in a case related to the May 9 riots that broke out following the arrest of Imran Khan in a corruption case from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC) earlier this year.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf condemned the arrest of its Vice President Qureshi and said that it was a violation of the Supreme Court's directions regarding level playing field. Chief justice should immediately issue release orders of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the party demanded. President Arif Alvi also expressed his concern at Qureshi's arrest.
Let us not become a state where human rights & dignity are trampled upon with impunity. Incidents of paper snatching, brutal action on protestors, and now treating an ex-foreign minister from two regimes in an undignified manner must draw the attention of the authorities. Detracting arguments that similar incidents have happened before do not cut ice because Pakistan must change, and if we as a nation agree, there is no better time than starting now, he said.
On Friday, the top court granted bail to Khan and Qureshi in the cipher case and demanded to submit surety bonds worth Rs 1 million each. Qureshi's family on Tuesday had arrived at Adiala jail to pay his surety bond. Still, before they could obtain the robkar (release order), Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hassan Waqar Cheema issued the order for the former foreign minister's 15-day detention under MPO.
Section 3 of MPO empowers the government to arrest and detain suspected persons to prevent them from "acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order. However, a subsequent notification issued by the DC said that the detention order had been withdrawn, Dawn.com said and claimed it had a copy of it.
The detainee shall be released from the jail forthwith if he is not required to be detained in any other case, it said. Speaking to reporters outside Adiala Jail, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said, If the Supreme Court granted bail to Qureshi on the basis that elections need to be free and fair and transparent, then the ECP needs to make sure he is released.
Khan said that the party would approach the election commission and also the high court if necessary. I also told the ECP that it would have been very good if they personally went out today and surveyed what was happening in various locations, Gohar said, adding that he would nonetheless submit an application to them. Both Khan and Qureshi have been incarcerated in multiple cases.
