Qureshi not being granted legal access at Adiala, claims lawyer

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's lawyer told reporters on Monday that he was not being allowed by the authorities to meet with his client in jail. The lawyer, Taimur Malik, maintained that "not even his daughter is being allowed to see him [Qureshi[". "Nothing can be said about the undertaking unless a meeting is held [with the PTI leader]," he said, adding that the legal team would once again try to visit him in jail today. "We can only submit an undertaking after taking directions from him," Malik stressed. Notably, the PTI leader remains in police custody five days after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) termed his arrest illegal and issued orders for his release. Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb had heard the PTI leader's plea against his arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Act (3MPO) last week. The court declared the arrest null and void and instructed the concerned authorities to ensure his release after he signs an undertaking. Read Imran 80% sure of his arrest tomorrow Despite relief from the courts, however, there appears to be no respite in the crackdown on PTI leaders. Their arrests followed violent protests that erupted following PTI chief Imran Khan's arrest, where sensitive state and military institutions were targeted. Addressing a meeting on law and order in Lahore on Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had reiterated that those involved in vandalism, and planning, inciting, and raising slogans against the armed forces and using abusive language would not be spared. “The 9th of May was the darkest day in the history of Pakistan, when a political party of the country committed anti-state acts of the sort that even the enemy couldn’t think of,” Shehbaz had told the meeting. The government has also on several occasions accused PTI chief Imran Khan of having masterminded the attacks. Meanwhile, Imran has called for an "independent investigation" into the vandalism, claiming that it was a well-planned conspiracy intended to weaken and eliminate the PTI.

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