Inquiry terms Safdar’s arrest illegal, violation of human rights
October 20, 2020 01:39 PM
An inquiry team formed to probe into the arrest of PML-N leader Capt Safdar the other day in Karachi has described the move as illegal and a violation of human rights, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.
In this connection, Additional Home Secretary Dr Muhammad Usman presented a report to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who will share the findings and announce the action against the responsible persons at a press conference later in the day.
On the other hand, PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira, in a statement, said what the rulers had got nothing except shame through the arrest of Safdar, adding that the move had further united the opposition parties.
Meanwhile, anti-terrorism court in Lahore extended the interim bail of the PML-N leaders till October 23 in a case pertaining to the clash outside the NAB office when Maryam Nawaz was summoned for an ongoing inquiry. Rana Sanaullah and Safdar are among those 30 persons nominated in the case.
Earlier on Monday morning, Safdar was arrested when police barged into the hotel room where he and his spouse – PML-N Vice-president Maryam Nawaz – was staying after attending the PDM rally on Sunday.
The move created shockwaves as some feared frictions in the recently-formed opposition alliance’s ranks. But the hours-long tense situation came to an end as a local court granted bail to Safdar in a case accusing him of violating the decorum at the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and hurling death threats to a person who got the FIR registered against him.
Later in the day, Maryam and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman told a press conference that Safdar was arrested with the aim of dividing the opposition's anti-government alliance.
Maryam said she never thought "for even a moment" that the arrest was carried out at the Sindh government's behest and alleged that the Sindh IGP was forcibly "taken to the sector commander's office and asked to sign on the arrest orders".
Her statement came hours after an audio clip emerged on Twitter in which PML-N leader Mohammad Zubair said that Murad told him the IGP was kidnapped and forced to register the FIR against Maryam, Safdar and 200 others for violating the sanctity of the mausoleum.
"Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt Safdar," Maryam had said via a tweet early morning. According to her, she was sleeping when the police allegedly "barged in".
She defended the slogans raised during her visit to Jinnah's mausoleum on Sunday, saying: "What is wrong with repeating Quaid-i-Azam's stance at his mausoleum? What is wrong with Madar-i-Millat (mother of the nation) slogans? No one chanted slogans for Nawaz Sharif or me."
"We all know who hates the Vote Ko Izzat Do (respect the vote) slogan. We all know who these unidentified persons are."
Maryam said the complainant in the case, Waqas Ahmed Khan, "is an absconder from an anti-terrorism court". Safdar had been receiving threats "from the highest levels" for a long time, she added.
"If someone thinks they can scare Nawaz Sharif with such tactics, they are wrong. Instead of blackmailing me through my relatives, if you have the courage, come and arrest me."
"This is a government of force, of oppression which does not consider itself bound to the law and the Constitution," said Fazl.
The JUI-F chief said the arrest was made through a conspiracy to create differences between PML-N and PPP but the government failed to create a rift between the opposition parties.
"This attack is not on Maryam but on entire PDM. Maryam is a guest of the Sindh government. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has regretted this act."
Talking to newsmen after in court in Lahore on Tuesday, Capt Safdar said: “When I went to Mazar-e-Quaid. I bow down and kiss the graves of Quaid-e-Azam and Fatima Jinnah in respect.”
“I was not afraid who came to my room and broke the lock. In fact, that knocking and kicking at the door had been going on with the Constitution of Pakistan for the last several decades.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FYrls-DbAI
Safdar said he regretted at the grave of Quaid that Pakistan was damaged in 1971 and Bangladesh was created and even declared mother of the nation Fatima Jinnah as a traitor. He said, “The reason I went to Mazar-e-Quaid was to apologize to him for what had been done to his Pakistan.”
The PML-N leader said he raised slogans Vote ko izzat do and only raised slogans Madar-e-Millat Zindabad for those who declared her as a traitor. He said he expressed his feeling at Mazar-e-Quaid that the 2018 elections were stolen.
“If expressing feelings to your mother is a crime then I will keep on doing this crime,” he said.