<\/p>\n
LAHORE: Firebrand PTI leader Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat was arres\u00adted on Thursday from outside the Lahore High Cou\u00adrt (LHC), where he had arrived to join a protest.<\/p>\n
According to police sou\u00adrces, the arrest was made under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), 1960.<\/p>\n
Mr Marwat, one of the counsels for former prime minister Imran Khan, was catapulted into the spotli\u00adg\u00ad\u00adht over the past few we\u00adeks due to his fiery add\u00adresses at the party\u2019s public events.<\/p>\n
The lawyer, who was recently made a senior vice president of the party, has been at the forefront at a time when the majority of the party\u2019s core leadership is in hiding or has parted ways.<\/p>\n
In a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) account early Thursday morning, Mr Marwat said he was in Lahore and wo\u00ad\u00adu\u00adld attend the protest aga\u00adinst the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to allow military trials of those accused of violence on May 9.<\/p>\n
\nPolice say arrest made under 3MPO; PTI, lawyers\u2019 bodies flay caretaker govt for \u2018abetting\u2019 lawlessness<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
LHCBA President Cha\u00adudhry Ishtiaq A. Khan, se\u00ad\u00adnior lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan, Sardar Latif Khosa, and Sher Ali Marwat also participated in the protest.<\/p>\n
But as Mr Marwat was leaving the LHC with a horde of lawyers, policemen arrested him at GPO Chowk. The lawyers surrounding Mr Marwat tried to rush him back inside the court to foil the arrest bid, but failed.<\/p>\n
Videos shared on social media also showed police officers accosting Mr Marwat and dragging him into a vehicle. He was then moved to an undisclosed location after the arrest.<\/p>\n
A message, attributed to Mr Marwat\u2019s team, shared later at night on his X account claimed he was being held at Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore.<\/p>\n
It was also claimed that the arrest had been made under Section 3 of the MPO. The provision emp\u00adowers the police to detain a person considered \u201cprejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legal team has started working for his release and will try [our] best that Mr Marwat be presented in court tomorrow,\u201d the message stated.<\/p>\n
\u2018Lawlessness\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
PTI leaders and lawyers bodies have severely criticised the arrest.<\/p>\n
While condemning the arrest, PTI said the action was an outcome of lawlessness in the country.<\/p>\n
A statement shared on PTI\u2019s official X account held the caretaker government responsible for \u201cacting as a facilitator\u201d during the \u201cunabated lawlessness\u201d.<\/p>\n
The party also expres\u00adsed concern over what it called the judiciary\u2019s continuous silence on \u201ccriminal and illegal actions\u201d being committed by the caretaker government.Several PTI leaders also condemned the arrest.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, PTI leader Moonis Elahi questioned the charges under which Mr Marwat would be booked. \u201c[Will you] lock him for stealing a buffalo or under 3 MPO,\u201d quipped Mr Elahi.<\/p>\n
\u201cCondemn the arrest of Sher Afzal Marwat. What exactly is going on???\u201d wrote PTI leader Taimur Khan Jhagra.<\/p>\n
Babar Awan urged the LHC chief justice to take notice of the arrest and demanded Mr Marwat\u2019s immediate release.<\/p>\n
The Lahore High Court Bar (LHCBA) has also demanded Mr Marwat\u2019s immediate release.<\/p>\n
LHCBA Vice President Rabbiya Bajwa said Mr Marwat\u2019s apprehension \u201cat the gate of the LHC\u201d proved there was no law in the country.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE: Firebrand PTI leader Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat was arres\u00adted on Thursday from outside the Lahore High Cou\u00adrt (LHC), where he had arrived to join a protest. According to police sou\u00adrces, the arrest was made under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), 1960. Mr Marwat, one of the counsels for former prime minister Imran Khan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/657b767cb5d3f.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}