Former member of Pakistan’s parliament and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Ali Wazir and human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari were remanded to three days in detention by the country’s anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday, August 21.
Wazir and Mazari were arrested by security forces on Sunday for participating in a rally organized by the PTM on Friday demanding immediate action against extrajudicial killings and the enforced disappearance of thousands of innocent people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in the military’s so-called anti-terror operations.
According to a report in Dawn, two FIRs were registered against both of them on Saturday at Tarnol police station (near Islamabad). The first FIR charges Mazari and Wazir, along with dozens of other activists of PTM who participated in the rally on Friday, under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code related to rioting, unlawful gathering, obstruction of public duty, wrongful restraint, and criminal intimidation, among other charges.
The second FIR accuses the PTM leadership of attacking state institutions in an attempt to weaken them and create rebellion against them and charged Imaan and Ali Wazir under anti-terrorism act.
At the PTM rally, Mazari demanded an end to war in the country, the release of all the people arrested by the army from the KP province, and the court martial of all army officials involved in creating troubles in the country.
Ali Wazir has been arrested on several occasions in the past as well for speaking against the army’s atrocities. He was briefly arrested in June this year after being released on bail in February after spending nearly 26 months behind bars on charges of sedition and criticism of the army.
Widespread condemnation
Shireen Mazari, Imaan’s mother and former minister of Human Rights in the Imran Khan government, said her daughter was arrested from her home on Sunday without an arrest warrant.
Several political and human rights groups condemned the arrests and demanded their immediate release.
Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights issued a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) condemning the arrest of Mazari without warrant as “violation of due process of law and [serving] to harass & spread fear amongst citizens.”
Dr. Taimur Rahman, general secretary of the Mazdoor Kisan Party, also demanded the immediate release of Mazari in a post on X.
Pakistan is heading towards elections with a caretaker prime minister, Anwar ul Haq Kakar. Meanwhile, authorities have allegedly launched a crackdown on all kinds of opposition in the country.
Several members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI), the main opposition, were arrested over various charges recently. Former prime minister Imran Khan is already in jail. On Saturday, Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) arrested Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vice-chairperson of PTI, over his alleged involvement in missing state documents.
PTI has alleged that the arrest of its leaders and activists is a part of crackdown on the party before the national election to weaken the opposition with Omar Ayub Khan, secretary general of PTI even calling it “fascism.”
