Hassaan Niazi, the nephew and focal person of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on legal affairs, was arrested from outside an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on Monday, police officials told a private TV channel.
He was arrested for “misbehaving with the police and resisting” at a checkpost, police sources said, adding that he has been shifted to an unknown location.
Niazi’s arrest came after his appearance at the ATC where a hearing of cases registered at Islamabad’s Ramna police station against PTI leaders and workers was being held. Meanwhile, Advocate Faisal Chaudhry has filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the release of the PTI leader. The petition stated that “police abducted Hasaan Niazi from the premises of Judical Complex after he obtained bail in a case.” Senior PTI leaders including Shibli Faraz, Omar Ayub, Raja Khurram, Aamir Mehmood Kiani, and Farrukh Habib also appeared before the court of ATC judge Raja Jawad Abbas for obtaining bail which was approved.
The bail applications have been approved till April 3 against surety bonds worth Rs50,000. During the hearing of the cases, the ATC judge remarked: “There are so many suspects that [we] will have to check the history back and forth.” All of the aforementioned leaders as well as the party’s workers had been booked under terrorism charges for the violence that erupted outside the judicial complex on Saturday where Khan had appeared in the Toshakhana case. The PTI workers had clashed with police and caused damage to public property. They also set fire to 10 police motorcycles outside the judicial complex and overturned a police officer’s car.
Meanwhile, the PTI claims that Khan’s focal person on legal affairs has been “abducted” by Superintendent of Police Nosherwan Ali Chandio, despite securing bail on all cases registered against him. “It is the peak of police brutality. Hassaan Niazi, a lawyer whose bail was just approved by the court, has been abducted,” the party tweeted. “Barrister @HniaziISF has been abducted illegally by @ICT_Police’s SP Nausherwan despite being on bail. We condemn this fascism and demand his immediate release,” the Insaf Lawyers Forum tweeted.
The forum demanded that the country’s chief justice take notice of this “blatant violation of laws. “The Rule of Law in Pakistan stands suspended,” the tweet read. PTI leader Farrukh Habib wrote that the police were deployed on both sides of the ATC, so that “they could arrest” them.
“According to lawyers, the police repeatedly said that they have received special orders to pick up Hassaan Niazi and Farrukh Habib. The lawyers informed me about their intentions; I dodged them and escaped after securing bail,” he wrote on Twitter. PTI Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry, taking to Twitter, called Niazi’s arrest “unacceptable”. “Arrest of @HniaziISF is unacceptable, he has been arrested from Court premises despite bail call upon ILF lawyers and Bar Associations to join in the protest,” Fawad wrote in his tweet. Condemning the development, the party’s secretary general Asad Umar said that the Constitution seems suspended following Niazi’s arrest. “Hassaan Niazi has been arrested despite getting bail from the court. The Constitution now appears to be suspended,” his tweet read.