In a video that surfaced on Wednesday, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and member of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party, was observed being subjected to rough treatment and intimidation by local police. Qureshi, recently granted bail in the cipher case by the Supreme Court, was apprehended outside Adiala jail on Wednesday.
Television footage and social media posts shared by the party depicted Qureshi vehemently objecting to the "illegality" of the police's actions while being forcibly placed into an armored police vehicle by an official donning the Punjab police uniform.
'Arresting me in false case': Qureshi shouts while being taken away
In a statement on X, the PTI reported that Shah Mahmood Qureshi was re-arrested outside Adiala jail shortly after securing bail in the cipher case. The party revealed that the Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner's order for Qureshi's 15-day detention, issued the previous day, had been rescinded.
As Qureshi was forcefully taken into custody by police officers, he continuously asserted that his arrest was unlawful. He emphasised that the police were undermining the directives of the Supreme Court, and he decried the height of cruelty and injustice being perpetrated.
“They are arresting me again in a false case,” Qureshi said. “I represented the nation, I am innocent and I am being targeted for political revenge without any reason,” he went on to add.
Pak SC had granted bail to Khan and Qureshi
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted bail to former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his close associate Qureshi in the cipher case, instructing them to submit surety bonds of Rs1 million each. Qureshi's daughter had expressed optimism about her father's release, noting that his arrest was not warranted in any other case.
However, on the day the family arrived at Adiala jail to pay Qureshi's surety bond, a complication arose. It was revealed that Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Hassan Waqar Cheema had issued an order for the former foreign minister's 15-day detention under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).
Section 3 of MPO grants the Pakistani government authority to arrest and detain individuals suspected of posing a threat to public order. It states: “The government, if satisfied that with a view to preventing any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order, it is necessary to do, may, by an order in writing, direct the arrest and detention in such custody […] and [the] government, if satisfied that for the aforesaid reasons, it is necessary so to do, may extend from time to time the period of such detention, for a period not exceeding six months at a time.”
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