Despite 12-hour dodging, Fawad Chaudhry arrested from outside Supreme Court

• Fawad taken into custody soon after he came out of SC's premises.
• PTI senior leader was in apex court premises since 11 in the morning.
• He has been detained under Section 3 of the MPO, says police.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry was arrested from outside the Supreme Court premises late Wednesday night as the authorities tightened the noose around the opposition party after violent protests broke out following party chairman Imran Khan's arrest.

Amid the ongoing crackdown on the PTI leaders and workers, the senior party leader had been inside the Supreme Court since 11am (for more than 12 hours) in a bid to evade arrest.

He was taken into custody after he came out of the apex court premises.

Like other party leaders, the Islamabad police detained Chaudhry under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) and shifted him to the Secretariat Police Station.

Speaking to the media minutes before his arrest, Chaudhry said the powerful lawyers’ community had become weak as there was infighting within the fraternity.

“Never has a petitioner been arrested in such a manner,” he expressed, adding that Islamabad High Court had, a day earlier, approve his pre-arrest bail — which he had shown to the capital cops earlier in the day.

Lamenting that the party chief was arrested from court premises as well, Chaudhry said Khan’s arrest led to a division in the country.

He also called for giving space to political opponents to pave the way for dialogue.

Before Fawad, the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested PTI Secretary General Asad Umar from the premises of the IHC — the same court from where Khan was taken into custody.

The Islamabad police's ATS officials picked up Umar from outside the IHC Bar Room where he and other PTI leaders were preparing a plea to be filed file in the IHC seeking a meeting with Khan.

According to eyewitnesses, the PTI lawyers fought with the police to prevent Umar's arrest, but the law enforcers overpowered them and took the PTI leader away.

The military has been called in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Islamabad to maintain the law and order situation.

The violence has also claimed at least four lives in Peshawar with Sindh imposing Section 144 to contain the violent protests staged by the former ruling party workers and supporters.