ISLAMABAD – A court in Pakistan’s capital has ordered an investigation into the controversial arrest of a former human rights minister in a decade-old land dispute.
Minallah questioned the decision of Islamabad officials to allow police from the Punjab provincial district to make arrests in the capital.
Mazari, who held a cabinet-level post under former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was detained by police near his home in Islamabad the day before.
Former Information Minister Fawad Chowdhury of the Khan administration has alleged that Mazari – a senior leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party – was politically targeted by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s new administration in the wake of a land dispute. 1972
Hours after Mazari’s arrest, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz ordered his release and he was brought to Islamabad court for an emergency hearing late Saturday night. He was then released.
Mazari has been criticizing Sharif’s government on Twitter since the fall of Khan’s government in a no-confidence vote in parliament last month. Lawmakers from Khan’s party have resigned from the lower house of the body in protest, and Khan is rallying supporters across the country through public rallies to press the government for early elections.
