Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law briefly arrested in Pakistan

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.

The complainant said that he tried to stop him from doing so but Safdar "got out of control" and started threatening him and his fellows that he would kill them.

He alleged that Safdar later damaged government property before leaving the site with his followers.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government, which hosted the PDM’s rally, distanced itself from the arrest, with PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also condemning the arrest. Bilawal said he was shocked to hear about the incident.

Bilawal said that the Sindh government was not informed about the arrest and that he had asked Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to investigate the incident.

Senior PML-N leader and Maryam's spokesperson Mohammad Zubair, while speaking to reporters, claimed that Safdar's arrest was a "sting operation by the state" and was carried out to damage the PDM alliance.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) minister Ali Zaidi had refuted Maryam’s claim, saying "Maryam (is) once again lying that the hotel door was broken."

On Sunday, Prime Minister Khan had warned that he would be getting tough with the opposition and would ensure 70-year-old Sharif is brought back from London and put in jail for his deeds.

Sharif, living in London since November last year after he was allowed by the courts and the government to go there for a period of eight weeks for medical treatment, has accused army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and spy agency ISI head Lt Gen Faiz Hameed for interfering in the elections of 2018 and installing Imran Khan’s "puppet government".