Pakistan’s deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar was on Monday briefly arrested from his hotel room in Karachi, a day after he staged a protest at the tomb of the country’s founder and attended a joint opposition rally.
“Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt Safdar,†said Safdar’s wife Maryam, who addressed the large anti-government rally in the port city on Sunday.
She said she was asleep when the police “barged in†her hotel room where he was staying with her husband.
Safdar was arrested a day after he raised slogans at Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s (Quaid) mausoleum just before the second rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) – an alliance of 11 opposition parties.
After much hue and cry on the political scenario with the Pakistan People’s Party-ruled Sindh government distancing itself from the arrest, Safdar was released by a judicial magistrate against surety bonds of Rs 100,000.
Maryam told reporters that she would leave Karachi with her husband as he had been released on bail.
“Aboard the flight to Lahore. Thank you Karachi! You won me over,†she tweeted.
Maryam said the Opposition parties will continue their protests until Prime Minister Imran Khan is removed from power.
Safdar was arrested after a first information report (FIR) was registered against him, Maryam and 200 others for violating the sanctity of the Quaid’s mausoleum.
Complainant Waqas Ahmed alleged that the PML-N leaders, along with 200 of their followers, reached the Quaid’s grave where Safdar jumped over the grill surrounding it.
