Karachi: In a highly dramatized move, the Sindh Police early on Monday arrested son-in-law of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Captain (retired) Mohammad Safdar, from a posh hotel of Karachi for allegedly violating the sanctity of the mausoleum of Founder of the Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah a day earlier.
Safdar was staying at the Hotel Avari Towers of Karachi with his wife Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Sharif.
Maryam took to twitter saying: “Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt. Safdar”.
Both arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon to attend the public meeting by the alliance of 11 Opposition political parties in Pakistan-the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-at Bagh-e-Jinnah, Karachi that is situated next to mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam. The Pakistan Peoples Peoples’ Party, the ruling party of Sindh, hosted the PDM’s public meeting in Karachi as part of the Opposition’s agitation drive against the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Pay homage
Before attending the public meeting of PDM, Maryam, who is also the Vice-President of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), along with Safdar, and other leaders of the party came to the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam to pay homage to the Founder of the Nation.
Safdar resorted to political sloganeering inside the mausoleum along with a large number of supporters of the PML(N) who gatecrashed and reached the heavily secured site of the final resting place of the Founder of the Nation.
Safdar chanted slogans several times along with supporters of PML (N): “Give respect to vote” that has been the most popular slogan of the party since Sharif was ousted from power in the previous regime.
The police lodged a case against Safdar and 200 other unidentified associates of the party for violating the provisions of “Quaid-e-Azam’s Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance-1971”. A section of the ordinance states: “No person shall organise, convene or take part in any meeting or demonstration or procession or engage in political activity of any kind within the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mazar or within a distance of ten feet from the outer boundary thereof”.
Affection from the people
This was the first time Maryam came to Karachi to take part in any political activity. While addressing the PDM’s political meeting on Sunday night, Maryam said that she had received so much affection from the people of Karachi that she had started a lifelong relationship with them.
She also expressed gratitude to the PPP for its hospitality by hosting the PDM’s public meeting.
In his tweet, Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said that whatever Safdar had done at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam was inappropriate but the way Karachi Police carried out the arrest is condemnable.
He said that Safdar had not been arrested on the direction of Sindh government as this act of the police was part of a conspiracy to cause a gulf among the component parties of the PDM. He said that they would fail this conspiracy.
In a statement, PML(N) leader and former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair said that the Sindh Police had been pressurized to lodge the criminal case against Safdar.
He said that the Sindh chief minister had himself confirmed that there had been immense pressure on the Sindh Police.
