A Pakistani court orders the release of a senior opposition official after finding his detention “illegal”

May 18. (EUROPE PRESS) –

A Pakistani court on Thursday ordered the release of a senior official from the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party, determining that his arrest last week after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Jan was “illegal”, just days after the release of Jan himself.

Thus, the Supreme Court of Islamabad has ordered that Shah Mahmud Qureshi, vice president of the PTI, be released, according to the Pakistani television channel Geo TV. Qureshi was one of the senior officials arrested in Islamabad after violent protests broke out after Jan was taken into custody.

Before his arrest, Qureshi, who was foreign minister from 2018 to 2022 during Khan’s government, called on opposition party supporters to keep up the fight for “true freedom.” Since then, he has maintained that he does not regret his statements and has denied that he incited violence.

The court has also ordered the release of the wife of Shehriar Afridi, another senior PTI official, also arrested last week. Afridi and his wife were arrested on suspicion of their alleged involvement in an attack against the Army General Headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi.

The National Security Committee of Pakistan (CSN) promised “zero tolerance” for those responsible for the riots after the arrest of Jan, later released after the Supreme Court ruled that his arrest had been “unlawful”, including the opening of trials in military courts for the attacks against Army installations.

The government coalition called on Tuesday for the resignation of the president of the Supreme Court, Umar Ata Bandial, for the decision to release Jan on bail, detained in the framework of a case for alleged corruption. Thus, he accused Bandial of “giving undue facilities” to the leader of the TPI.

Jan was dismissed in October 2022 through a motion of no confidence in Parliament, approved after the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the then Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament and announce early elections after the refusal of the Presidency of the legislative body to hold the vote in the first instance. In November, he was shot after being shot during a protest against the new government.