Shah Mahmood Qureshi refuses to leave PTI, re-arrested outside Adiala Jail

Vice-chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Mahmood Qureshi was re-arrested on Tuesday soon after being released from the Adiala Jail, Aaj News reported.

Confirming his arrest, the PTI Twitter handle said Qureshi was arrested after he refused to leave the party.

“I am with the party, I will stay with the party,” the statement quoted him as saying.

Qureshi was among the top PTI leaders arrested from Islamabad within 24 hours of the outbreak of violent protests following former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest as the government tightened the noose around the party.

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He was taken into custody in the early hours of May 11 after the police raided Gilgit-Baltistan House in Islamabad under Section 3 (3MPO).

Qureshi’s release had been ordered by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) after he agreed to give an undertaking that he would not participate in violent protests.

Meanwhile, the PTI leader Musarrat Jamshed Cheema has also been re-arrested upon her release. PTI condemned her arrest and termed it an example of the government’s “fascism”.

“These practices must be stopped immediately, court’s decisions must be respected now,” the party said.

Reacting to the development, PTI chief Imran Khan condemned the re-arrest of the party’s Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and vowed that he would resist till his last breath.

“We are now being governed by the law of the jungle, might is right and the only thing standing in its way is our judiciary,” he wrote.

“The constitution is being brazenly violated along with SC rulings. Police being used to crush PTI, our leaders forced to quit the party.”

“The constitution is being brazenly violated along with SC (Supreme Court) rulings. Police are being used to crush PTI, our leaders forced to quit the party,” he further said in a tweet, adding that “giving into this cruelty means the death of our nation”.