In defiance of the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) orders, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) denounced the “manhandling” and re-arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Parvez Elahi, according to Dawn.
PBC Vice-Chairman Haroonur Rashid and Executive Committee Chairman Hassan Raza Pasha “strongly condemned the manhandling and the way” Elahi was re-arrested, as well as his detention under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), in a statement released on Saturday.
The former Punjab chief minister was ordered to be freed on Friday along with a restraining order against his potential arrest by any agency or preventative custody.
A squad of Islamabad police, supported by the Punjab police, however, caught his white SUV at the FCC underpass along with lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa hours after he was freed from the Adiala Jail, according to a story in Dawn.
Elahi was transferred by the police into a white vehicle without a license plate and driven to Islamabad. Men in plain clothes and uniformed Punjab policeman can be seen taking Elahi out of his vehicle in the viral footage.
The PBC said in the statement that the LHC had “categorically ordered not to re-arrest him in any case” and that the re-arrest was done “while disregarding and non-complying” with that decision.
The detention “raised questions about the rule of law and the power dynamics in Pakistan’s political landscape,” according to the PBC, which voiced worry.
The council emphasized the importance of adhering to court rulings, carrying them out, and upholding the Constitution, and said that the courts “should take care while deciding political matters whether orders passed therein could be implemented or not,” according to Dawn.
Elahi, meantime, contested his MPO arrest on Saturday before Islamabad High Court (IHC), according to Pakistan’s ARY News.
According to ARY News, Elahi has contested his imprisonment via counsel Abdul Razzaque. In the court-filed plea, he named the Secretary of the Interior, the IG Police, and other parties as respondents. Elahi asked the judge to overturn his MPO arrest and order his immediate release.
After being detained again by Islamabad police on Saturday, he entered his plea in court. He was sent to Attock Jail after being arrested. He was detained for 15 days under Pakistan’s Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) shortly after being transported to Islamabad, according to an order from the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Islamabad.
According to an ARY News report, the Islamabad government issued the order and warned that Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, a significant PTI office-holder, may make the law and order situation worse.