Sindh Police tweets Captain Safdar's arrest 'according to the law' after deleting it

The Sindh Police reposted an earlier tweet on retired Captain Safdar's arrest late Monday, a few hours after it had deleted it.

The latest tweet by the Sindh Police had the sentence "Due process will be followed in all respect" added to it, after the part about Captain Safdar's arrest being "according to law and the investigation will be impartial and on merit".

The statement from the police came amidst the PML-N leadership's claims that Captain Safdar was arrested by Sindh Police under pressure. 

Captain Safdar, Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law and Maryam Nawaz's spouse, was arrested early on Monday by Sindh Police for, among other charges, allegedly violating the sanctity of Quaid-e-Azam's Mazar (also called Mazar-e-Quaid).

The sanctity of the Quaid's Mazar is protected by The Quaid-i-Azam’s Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance, 1971, which explicitly forbids political activities within the premises of the mausoleum.

"No person shall organise, convene or take part in any meeting or demonstration or procession or engage in political activity within the premises of Quaid's mausoleum or within a distance of ten feet from the outer boundary thereof," reads the law on the matter.

Moreover, the ordinance underscores that no person "shall do any act or behave in any manner which is or tends to be derogatory to the sanctity and dignity of the Quaid-i-Azam’s Mazar."

An offense under this law carries the penalty of a maximum three years of imprisonment and/or a fine. 

“Murad Ali Shah personally confirmed to me that his [Sindh] police had nothing to do with this. They were put under extreme pressure,” PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair, who is the official spokesperson for Maryam Nawaz and Nawaz Sharif, had told reporters outside Karachi’s Aziz Bhatti Police Station earlier today.

“I am a former governor and I was not allowed inside the police station; even the lawyers were not allowed inside the police station, nor were they allowed to meet [Safdar],” Zubair had said.

Zubair had termed the arrest a “sting operation carried out by the state” by “pressurising” Sindh Police.

Meanwhile, PPP leaders Saeed Ghani and Nasir Hussain Shah publicly regretted the arrest, blaming the federal government of orchestrating it in order to embarrass the Sindh government.