By tomorrow, LHC wants specifics on the FIRs filed against Qureshi.
All cases registered against PTI Vice Chairperson, both public and secret, must be made public, as ordered by the court.
On Monday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered the Punjab caretaker administration to release, by June 6, the specifics of all cases filed against Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the vice chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
After strikes on May 9 on critical government facilities, the former foreign minister has been in police arrest.
After Qureshi filed an undertaking to the Islamabad High judge (IHC) on May 23, the judge ordered his freedom. However, the Punjab Police re-arrested him from outside the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi a few hours later.
Meher Bano Qureshi, his daughter, subsequently went to the LHC to learn whether any fresh or secret FIRs filed against her father.
Both the chief secretary of Punjab and the IGP of Punjab were included as respondents in the case.
She asked the judge to tell the appropriate authorities not to arrest Qureshi in any new criminal matter without first getting judicial approval.
The petition also claimed that Qureshi’s loved ones have learnt of other new criminal cases that have been launched against him and are afraid he will be unjustly jailed again.
Justice Ali Baqar Najafi of the LHC granted the petition during today’s hearings and ordered the caretaker administration to provide information about all pending cases to the court by June 6.
Despite court orders to stop, it appears that the crackdown on PTI leaders has continued unabated.
After the incident on May 9, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif continued to criticize the PTI, calling their actions a “brazen attack on the state of Pakistan” with “sinister objectives” in a new statement.
However, Shehbaz took to Twitter to emphasize that “the culprits [of May 9] are being dealt with under the law” and to promise that “no rights violations take place.”
The prime minister stated that the PTI leader and his party were trying to destroy Pakistan’s “integrity” and “no country in the world would tolerate” such behavior.
Shehbaz pledged, “Pakistan fully respects and is committed to all its constitutional and international obligations on human rights [sic].”
Regarding May 9 and the events that followed, he denied allegations of human rights abuses and restrictions on the freedom to political protest. The prime minister has stated that such speech is “intended to manipulate and sway opinion-makers outside the country.” Shehbaz stated that any cases related to May 9 “will be dealt with due process under the law.”
