The ongoing crackdown against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continued on Wednesday, with several party leaders that had been released on orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) getting re-arrested—within minutes or hours of their exit from prison.
Earlier, police presented Shireen Mazari and PTI Senator Falak Naz in the court of Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Shabbir and requested their physical remand for three days for a case accusing them of brandishing weapons. After hearing the arguments of lawyers from both sides, the judge discharged the case against both women. According to police, the women were picked up in a case registered against “unknown people,” and were not named in the FIR.
Speaking with media after her case was discharged, Mazari said she had earlier been released by the IHC but was re-arrested before she even left the Adiala Jail. She said she was then shifted to the Diplomatic Enclave before being taken to the Secretariat Police Station. Subsequently, Mazari and Naz’s lawyers appeared before Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb of the IHC, who barred police from arresting either woman in any case that had been registered against them thus far. However, Mazari was arrested for a third time by the Islamabad police later in the evening.
Separately, PTI leader Maleeka Bokhari was also re-arrested by Punjab police shortly after being released in the afternoon. According to police, she had earlier been detained under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order; it is unclear what charges she faces for the re-arrest.
Former minister Ali Muhammad Khan, meanwhile, was also released after being detained under the MPO but was re-arrested within minutes of his exit from a district jail in Jhelum. In a video available on social media, Khan can be seen exiting the prison and walking toward his car when he is stopped by police, who escort him to a waiting vehicle for transfer to another holding area.
According to police, leaders who have been detained under sections of the MPO are also facing multiple other cases, and can be arrested for any of them upon their release.