KARACHI: The Sindh government on Wednesday night decided to move Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Ali Zaidi to Jacobabad jail immediately as his house arrest orders were withdrawn.
The move came hours after Zaidi dismissed reports of leaving PTI while also condemning the May 9 attacks on the military installations. According to a notification issued by the Sindh home department: “This department’s corrigendum of even number dated 15/5/2023 regarding detention of Ali Zaidi (MNA) s/o Syed Sajjad Haider Zaidi at sub-jail declared vide Home Department notification …is herby withdrawn/cancelled.”
The notification read that since the May 15 corrigendum has been recalled, the May 12 order shall continue and the detained PTI leader will be shifted to the District Prison Jacobabad. Taking to Twitter, the detained senior PTI leader wrote: My house arrest request was accommodated because of a health condition, Asthma & severe strain on my lower back. Now I am being arrested again from Ziauddin hospital & taken to Jacobababd jail. Am I being punished for saying positive things about our armed forces or condemning the violence of May 9th? What has become of my land…The Land of the Pure…. #AllahKarim #PakistanZindabad.”
Zaidi’s arrest comes as part of the ongoing crackdown on the leadership and workers of Imran-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf over their alleged involvement in torching military and public properties after PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust in IHC case on May 9.
The deadly protests took the lives of at least 10 people and injured dozens others, with the authorities arresting the party leaders and thousands of PTI workers. Before Zaidi, PTI leaders Shireen Mazari, Maleeka Bokhari and Ali Muhammad Khan — who were released earlier Wednesday — were rearrested.
