PTI MPA arrested on harassment charges

Complainant claims Shabbir Qureshi had allegedly called to offer her a job

KARACHI:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Shabbir Qureshi was arrested early on Sunday morning over the charges of harassing a woman.

Confirming the arrest, Karachi police chief Javed Alam Odho said that the arrest was made from outside the residence of the PTI MPA in Clifton as he stepped out to go to the mosque for Fajir prayers.

Odho said that a woman had filed a complaint at the SITE B police station stating PTI MPA Shabbir Qureshi had allegedly called her to offer her a job.

Police have registered a case under section 354 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The section reads that whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to two years and fine.

Odho said that MPA Qureshi would be produced before a magistrate on Monday.

Speaking to Express News, Shabbir Qureshi's wife said that when he went out of the house to offer Fajr prayers, the policemen and some plainclothesmen grabbed him and took him to an unknown location. It was later learned that Shabbir Qureshi had been arrested by Site-B police. "My husband is innocent. Police have arrested him in a false case," Qureshi's wife asserted.

Protesting the arrest, the PTI termed the move political victimisation. Former Sindh governor Imran Ismail, opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh and other PTI leaders reached Shabbir's residence and sought details from his wife.

Other PTI leaders and brother of Shabbir Ishaq Advocate reached the SITE police station.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2022.