World News | Former Pak Minister Mazari Claims Was Asked to Appear at ISI Headquarters over Missing Persons Bill
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Pakistan's former human rights minister claimed on Tuesday that she was asked to visit the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters after her ministry pursued a bill about enforced disappearances in the country.
Islamabad, May 24 (PTI) Pakistan's former human rights minister claimed on Tuesday that she was asked to visit the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters after her ministry pursued a bill about enforced disappearances in the country.
Shireen Mazari was speaking to the media at the National Press Club in Islamabad days after her arrest and release by the Punjab anti-corruption department.
Narrating the incident, she said that the day the human rights ministry was planning to table a bill about enforced disappearances in the National Assembly, she had to go to the ISI main office in the capital.
"That evening I got a phone call asking me to appear at the ISI headquarters. I went and I said that we had signed international conventions," she said, without giving more details about the visit.
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Mazari said that after the bill was tabled in the National Assembly, it was referred to the interior committee where "invisible shadows" tried to change some of the clauses.
“The bill was passed with the amendments but then it ‘disappeared' on the way after it was sent to the Senate – the upper house,” she said.
The former minister said she had taken a clear view regarding enforced disappearances and the ousted prime minister Imran Khan had also voiced his opposition from the beginning to the problem of enforced disappearances.
"We have also taken a position against this in our manifesto and will take the same position in the next one. But you know there are so many powers that stop bills [from being passed]," she said.
Mazari said that the previous government also faced similar hurdles to get the journalist protection bill passed.
"You don't know how it was passed, what obstacles we faced," she said, adding that she will reveal all these details if she writes a book in the future.
Mazari was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Punjab on Saturday but released the same day after amid mounting pressure from her Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
"They dragged me from the car, put me in a white Vigo (car) and headed towards the motorway," she said, claiming that officials took away her phone and wallet.
When asked about her lawyer daughter using abusive language against army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and accusing him of arresting of her mother, Mazari said she was understandably upset.
"My daughter was upset as her mother had disappeared. She did a press conference where she took the name of General Bajwa and used a certain word. Now petitions and FIRs are being filed, saying she is against the national interest and that it is terrorism,” she said.
"Seems like the establishment is currently suffering from Mazari phobia," she said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)