LHC directs authorities to produce Shireen Mazari at 11:30pm

Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered the interior secretary to produce PTI leader and former federal minister Shireen Mazari, who was manhandled and arrested outside her Islamabad residence by policemen, before the court at 11:30pm tonight.

The PTI stalwart was arrested in connection with a land ownership and transfer case.

The IHC reopened outside its usual working hours after Mazari's daughter Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir filed a petition against her mother's arrest.

In a three-page court order the high court said that when it has already given orders that no MNA can be arrested without the permission of the Speaker of the National Assembly, and since Mazari is still an MNA on account of not having been de-notified form her seat, then "under what authority of law the fundamental rights of Dr Shireen Mazari were violated?".

The IHC issued directives for the interior secretary and also summoned Islamabad Inspector General of Police 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.