Politicians, journalists and civil society resoundingly lambasted the manner of former foreign minister and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s re-arrest from outside Adiala Jail on Wednesday in a case yet to be disclosed.

Footage shared by the PTI on Instagram showed Qureshi, clad in a cardigan and a shalwar kameez, attempting to speak to police personnel gathered outside the jail while he remained inside its premises. However, an official wearing the Punjab police uniform refused to listen and proceeded to shove Qureshi out the gate and toward an armoured police vehicle.

“Look at this. What is this?” Qureshi said as he was pushed the entire way to the van while the crowd urged the officials to be careful.

President Arif Alvi denounced the incident, saying that the treatment meted out to a former foreign minister “in an undignified manner must draw the attention of the authorities”.

He said Pakistan should not become a state where human rights and dignity are “trampled upon with impunity”, adding that “Pakistan must change, and if we as a nation agree, there is no better time than starting now.”

Former premier and PPP leader Yousuf Raza Gillani condemned the incident as well, saying that any politician being treated in such a manner was “regrettable”.

He called on the administration to take notice of the incident.

His son Kasim Gillani also condemned the incident. He said that having suffered the consequences of state violence himself, he would never support such actions.

“Such attitude of the administration is never acceptable,” he said in a post on his X account.

“While the world around Pakistan is being transformed, at home, the country remains mired in an unending ‘political tribalism’, with such shameful scenes not only making Pakistan an international laughing-stock but also a pointer towards the country’s slow-motion descent into a lawless republic of fear!” PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said in a stinging rebuke of the incident.

He said it was time to pull the country “back from the precipice” as the new year needed a fresh beginning and a healing touch.

Qureshi’s daughter Gauhar Bano questioned how a “man in solitary confinement be a threat to the nation?”

Lawyer and human rights activist Jibran Nasir said the Supreme Court should take cognisance that such actions were not merely against the individual but had also violated the apex court’s order.

“This is not an arrest. It is an abduction in broad daylight by a gangster state,” said academic and activist Dr Ammar Ali Jan.

Senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi termed the incident “fascism at its peak.”

Journalist Absa Komal said it was “sad to see how a two-time foreign minister is being treated.”

Mosharraf Zaidi, CEO of advisory services firm Tabadlab, questioned how the incident served the country and rued how a former foreign minister was treated.

Lawyer Khadija Siddiqi said that how Qureshi, a senior politician and an elderly man, was “manhandled” for the “despicable purpose of re-arrest shows the desperation”.

“Court orders are flouted every minute, constitutional guarantees buried. But who cares. Pre-poll rigging first,” she said.

PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan termed the Punjab police actions “sheer thuggery”.

Qureshi’s lawyer Barrister Taimur Malik said his client was arrested in the “most despicable manner by pushing and shoving him into an armoured vehicle”.

“Why are the authorities bent upon making a mockery of the justice system!” he questioned

He added that Qureshi’s entire immediate family had “witnessed SMQ being treated in this inhumane, immoral and unlawful manner. Shameful!”

PTI Senior Vice President Sher Afzal Khan Marwat called for active resistance and advocacy.

“Use your voting power to support policies and leaders committed to ending cruelty,” he said

PTI leader and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa finance minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra said the only path left for Pakistan was to heal and move forward.

“It is the only path that works, and it is one that involves holding the constitution supreme,” he said.

Jhagra said that if the country treated its dignitaries in such a manner then what respect could it expect from others.

Former special assistant to the prime minister, Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, called the arrest “outrageous and unacceptable”.

“This is a blatant violation of justice and the rule of law. It must be condemned by all.”