ISLAMABAD
After spending much of the day in the custody of police and anti-corruptioan officials shuttling between the federal capital and Lahore, former federal human rights minister returned home early on Sunday morning
Her return came after the Islamabad High Court extraordinarily opened its doors after office hours on Saturday to hear a petition, filed by her daughter Imaan Zainab Mazari, and ordered her immediate release along with a probe into the incident by a judicial commission.
On Saturday afternoon, uniformed officers from the Kohsar police station in the federal capital, along with officers of Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Department in Dera Ghazi Khan had intercepted and arrested Mazari from near her home in Islamabad. Police said that she had been arrested in a case of land grabbing.
Mazari’s daughter, Imaan, who is a lawyer, had told the media and posted a tweet on microblogging site Twitter, claiming that her mother had arrested by male members of the police while they had also allegedly beat her. With Mazari’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announcing nationwide protests, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz ordered the police to release Mazari.
With the IHC ordering the government to produce Mazari before it by 11:3pm, the court room and the courtyard of the IHC was buzzing with several senior members of the PTI including Fawad Chaudhry, Qasim Suri, Hammad Azhar and others as they waited for Mazari’s return.
Shortly before the 11:30pm deadline given by the court, Mazari was brought back to the federal capital and produced before the court. Emotional scenes were witnessed in the court grounds when Shireen Mazari stepped out of the police vehicle and was embraced by her daughter Imaan.
