Ex-minister’s arrest triggers high drama

Former minister Shireen Mazari released after her arrest sparks outrage

ISLAMABAD:

Senior PTI leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari on Saturday was allegedly manhandled, and arrested from outside her home in Islamabad over a case that involved the ownership and transfer of land.

Her daughter, lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, tweeted that male police officers had “beaten” and taken her mother away. “All I have been told is that Anti-Corruption Wing Lahore has taken her,” she added.

Islamabad police, however, refuted claims of mishandling the former minister during the arrest. “Dr Shireen Mazari was arrested by female police officers as per the law on the request of the anti-corruption department. News of any mishandling is baseless,” they said in a tweet.

Video of her arrest showed female police officers dragging the former minister out of her car after she refused to step out.

Unidentified voices in the footage could be heard telling her that “there is no issue” and the matter could be discussed “peacefully”.

“You are using violence. Don’t you take my phone ... you b***d,” Shireen could be heard saying in response.
In a separate video, her daughter Imaan claimed her mother was “kidnapped”.

“I do not know anything. All I know is that a woman was kidnapped today in a thug-like manner.” A visibly distraught Imaan added that neither was the family informed of anything nor anyone else.

Read more: Punjab CM orders Shireen Mazari’s release after she was 'violently whisked away' by police

She also ‘warned’ the incumbent government of consequences if such “tactics” would be used.
Speaking to the media outside the Kohsar police station after her initial statement, Imaan said the “unconstitutional” manner used to detain her mother could not be termed as an arrest. She added that she does not have information regarding her mother’s whereabouts and she was “forcibly disappeared”.

“The government thinks that women are soft targets and I want to convey to them that I will not rest and will come after them.”

Imaan was accompanied by PTI senior leaders Fawad Chaudhry and Shibli Faraz.

Fawad agreed with Imaan’s description of the detention being a kidnapping. “This is abduction. We don’t know about her whereabouts. This is a grave human rights violation.”

He added that the manner in which this government picked up a woman and “subjected her to violence and tore her clothes and the inhumane way she was taken [is condemnable]”.

In the wake of the backlash, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz ordered the ‘immediate release’ of Shireen.

سولہ ارب روپے کی کرپشن کے ملزمان کی آج بھی گرفتاری نہیں ہوئ دونوں کو ریاست کے سب سے بڑھے عہدوں سے نوازا گیا اور 1972 کے ایک نامعلوم مقدمے میں @ShireenMazari1 جیسی لیڈر کو اغواء کر لیا جاتا ہے #امپورٹڈ_حکومت_نامنظور https://t.co/7Ust2XTqYG

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 21, 2022

In a statement, CM Hamza said that Shireen as a woman was respect worthy and he had ordered her release.

“Arrest of any woman does not hold compatibility with our moral values,” he said, adding that the investigation would also be initiated against the anti-corruption staff for arresting the former minister.
Hamza also underscored that if the arrest was inevitable as a result of investigation, then the law will take its own course.

The Punjab CM said that he did not agree with the way Shireen was whisked away by police. “The PML-N, as a political party, believes in respecting women.”

Hamza also condemned the indecent language being uttered about his party’s vice president and cousin, Maryam Nawaz.

“However, taking revenge is not our tradition and practice.”

The FIR registered against the former minister read that the scrutiny of record revealed that Shireen, in connivance with revenue officials, had fraudulently and through bogus mutation transferred an 800 kanal land in favour of a bogus company -- Progressive Farms Limited.

Shireen Mazari is being investigated & Prosecuted for an offence allegedly committed 50 years ago. Fresh report on the alleged offence was prepared in April, 2022 after 50 years. Interestingly, she was 6 years old and in no position to commit the offence in 1972.

— Abuzar Salman Khan Niazi (@SalmanKNiazi1) May 21, 2022

The FIR added that the Federal Land Commission in its report had declared this mutation bogus. “During the perusal of record, it revealed that land measuring 1,386 Acres of Mst. Shireen Mehrun-Nisa Mazari was surrendered to Provincial Govt through Land Commission. In Mutation No. 39 dated 05.07.1973, there is cutting and tempering.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesperson, MPA Malik Ahmad Khan, said Shireen’s family “tampered” with land records and “forcibly took it back from poor farmers”.

“According to the report of the Federal Land Commission, action was taken against the revenue officers in the area at that time and Shireen Mazari was the beneficiary. The land is in their possession. There are more than 200 petitioners,” he told the media during a news conference in Islamabad.

Khan said the case was registered in March when the PTI was in power. “Warrants had been issued. There was a judicial order to arrest. We are not the complainants but justice will be done.”

The spokesperson disclosed that the FIR from March was not the only one, rather, dozens of cases had been registered in 2008 and 2013, adding that cases had been lodged against Shireen’s entire family.
“We are specifically saying that they forged documents, destroyed revenue records, grabbed land and filled incorrect information.”

Speaking on the occasion, PML-N leader Ataullah Tarar advised the PTI that they should “not worry (aap ne ghabrana nahi hai)”. “You [grabbed] 800 kanals of land and now you’re complaining that your clothes were torn,” he added.

Arresting #ShireenMazari who has no allegations against her is uncalled for, wrong! Who has ordered her arrest and why?

— Nafisa Shah (@ShahNafisa) May 21, 2022

Soon after, Imaan filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court against the arrest as the court staff, which had retired for the day, returned to its premises.

The petition urged the court that it should be accepted and a production order be issued for Shireen.
It also requested that the concerned law enforcement agencies be directed to produce the PTI leader and subsequently be restrained from “extending threats” to the petitioner and her family.

“It is in the public knowledge that the petitioner’s mother was a furious critic of the violation of human rights in the hands of the law enforcement agencies. [...] It is also on record that petitioner and her mother were often made target[s] for their bold and straightforward stance with regard to human rights violations in the country,” the petition read.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah ordered the authorities concerned to produce the former minister before the court at 11:30pm.

In a three-page court order, the high court noted that when it had already given orders that no MNA could be arrested without the permission of the National Assembly speaker, and since Shireen was still an MNA on account of not having been de-notified from her seat, then “under what authority of law the fundamental rights of Dr Shireen Mazari were violated?”.

The IHC summoned the interior secretary, Islamabad IG Dr Akbar Nasir Khan and Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon.

The court said that its order should also be sent to Islamabad Advocate General Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon and Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali.

Documents available with The Express Tribune show that the case was registered half a century ago. Shireen was arrested in a case that was filed when she was only six years old.

The former federal minister, who was born on April 26, 1966, was booked on a complaint registered against her father in 1972. The case was re-registered on April 12, 2022, on the complaint of the Rajanpur deputy commissioner.

PTI leader Fawad tweeted that Shireen was “kidnapped” in a case that was registered in 1972. Analyst Abuzar Salman Khan Niazi said Shireen was being investigated and prosecuted for an offence allegedly committed 50 years ago.

“Fresh report on the alleged offence was prepared in April, 2022 after 50 years. Interestingly, she was 6 years old and in no position to commit the offence in 1972,” he wrote on his Twitter handle.

HRCP condemns the arrest and manhandling of senior PTI leader @ShireenMazari1. Her arrest smacks of political victimisation, which has regrettably become an entrenched practice and is deplorable no matter which party is the perpetrator. 1/2

— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) May 21, 2022