The former deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Dost Muhammad Mazari, was granted a two-day physical remand by a Lahore magistrate.
One day after his detention by the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Mazari was brought before a magistrate’s court.
In order to continue the investigation, Mazari’s physical detention was asked during today’s session by the attorney for ACE Punjab.
The politician from the Punjab Assembly must appear in court on Tuesday, according to a directive from the court after it approved the remand.
Punjab Mazari is detained by ACE in a land infringement case.
The former deputy speaker of the provincial house was detained by ACE Punjab on Saturday in connection with an alleged land encroachment case.
His cousin Shabab Mazari, who confirmed the arrest, claimed that the angry PTI MPA was detained as he was visiting his frail grandfather Balakh Sher Mazari at a private hospital.
Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari, a PTI National Assembly dissident member, commented on the deputy speaker’s arrest to Geo News “Balakh Sher Mazari, my father, has been ill for fifteen days. Dost Muhammad Mazari stopped by my father’s hospital room.”
The MNA disclosed that ACE officers arrived at the hospital to detain Mazari without a warrant or first information report (FIR).
Riaz Mazari stated that “Dost Mazari is being targeted out of political retaliation.”
LHC criticises ACE Punjab for turning into a “political tool”
A day after the Lahore High Court criticised ACE Punjab for its recent measures against Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Mazari was arrested.
The comments were made by the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench during the hearing of the minister’s complaint against the arrest warrants that ACE Punjab had issued for him. Additionally present in the court was Nadeem Sarwar, director-general of ACE Punjab.
“Your organisation has evolved into a political instrument. “One [DG] prepares a case, another (DG) completes that case,” the court said. The official was criticised for lying to get the warrants for Sanaullah’s arrest.