Shireen Mazari, a former human rights minister and prominent member of the PTI, has announced her resignation from the party and retirement from active politics, citing personal reasons.
Following her decision, there were speculations about PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi also leaving the party, but he confirmed his allegiance to the PTI and stated that he would not part ways with it during a brief media talk after his rearrest outside Adiala Jail by the Punjab Police. Qureshi had been released earlier by the Islamabad High Court after submitting an affidavit denouncing the protests that took place on May 9.
The arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan by the National Accountability Bureau at the Islamabad High Court on May 9 in the Al Qadir Trust case triggered widespread protests across the country, accompanied by incidents of vandalism and violence. In the aftermath of the protests, several PTI leaders, including Shireen Mazari, were arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance. Despite being granted bail on multiple occasions, Mazari was immediately re-arrested each time.
During a press conference in Islamabad, Mazari condemned the violence during the May 9 and 10 protests and stated that she had given an undertaking to that effect in the Islamabad High Court. She explained that her decision to leave the PTI and retire from politics came after enduring 12 days of arrest, which had a negative impact on her health and the well-being of her daughter, lawyer Imaan Hazir Mazari.
Mazari’s timeline of arrests includes her initial arrest on May 12 by the capital police, subsequent release ordered by the Islamabad High Court on May 16 (which was followed by her re-arrest outside Adiala Jail), discharge by a sessions court in Islamabad on May 17 in a case related to brandishing weapons (followed by her third arrest by the Punjab Police from her home on the same day), annulment of her detention order by the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on May 22 (and her subsequent release), and her fourth arrest by the Gujrat Police from outside Adiala Jail. Today, after a court in Gujrat ordered her release, Mazari was taken away in a Vigo without a number plate, marking what the PTI claimed as her fifth arrest.
