KARACHI: The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement’s Member of National Assembly, Ali Wazir, who was recently arrested in Peshawar over a host of charges including using provocative language against state institutions during a rally in Karachi, was brought to the metropolis on Friday night.

Police sources said that the MNA was brought to Karachi by air and police personnel took him into custody at the airport. He was later taken to an undisclosed location. He is likely to be produced before the court concerned.

Mr Wazir and several other PTM leaders were booked over charges of using defamatory, provocative and undesirable language against state institutions and army, police and Rangers at the PTM’s rally held at Sohrab Goth on Dec 6.

The police registered an FIR against them on behalf of the state through the SHO concerned. The police have invoked sections 120-B, 153-A, 505-(2), 188 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Subsequently, the lawmaker was arrested in Peshawar at the request of Sindh police, whose arrest, curiously, was condemned by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. The Pakistan Peoples Party runs the government in Sindh.

A senior police officer, who wished not to be named, told Dawn that “province-to-province requests seeking police help is a routine affair and you may find several such requests on a daily basis”.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020