LAHORE: The second suspect nominated in the murder case of a British national girl was arrested by police on Sunday.

Mahira Zulfiqar, 25, was found shot dead in her rented house in Defence on May 3 and Defence-B police had registered a murder case against two suspects, Zahir Jadoon and Saad Ameer Butt, on complaint of her uncle, Muhammad Nazeer.

The Crime Investigation Agency police Cantonment Division arrested Jadoon on Sunday. The other suspect, Saad Butt, had already courted arrest and joined the police investigation.

Jadoon’s lawyer, Zarak Khan, claimed his client was on pre-arrest bail till May 27.

Mr Khan, in a series of tweets, said, “Our client Zahir Javed Khan, after attaining pre-arrest bail, joined the investigation accompanied by his brother, Tahir Javed Khan, and cousin, Sheryar Khan, in the evening. I just received a call from Advocate Saad Iqbal, telling me that CIA Lahore Cantt has unlawfully confined Zahir who is on bail and those who accompanied him to join the investigation (sic).”

He further tweeted, “Saad Iqbal was in continuous contact with Sheryar Khan and upon last conversation Saad was told that police has confined both brothers and are putting him under confinement too”.

He questioned the arrest in another tweet, saying, “Does our Constitution, penal laws of the land, the procedure and the police rules and orders allow such exercise of powers on part of state authorities? Such arbitrary exercise of power amounts to infringement of our constitutional rights to the satisfaction of International pressure and police high ups (sic)?”

He went on to tweet, “If the prosecution has something against my client they have every right to get his bail rejected through the Court of Law but bypassing the law should never be tolerated in any manner whatsoever. Usurping the bail orders of the court raises a strong question mark against our legal system”.

CIA SSP Shoaib Khurram Janbaz was not available for his comments after repeated attempts on his mobile phone.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021