Son-in-law of former premier Nawaz Sharif and senior PML-N leader Captain(r) Mohammad Safdar Awan has been granted bail in the Mazar-e-Quaid sanctity case. Safdar was arrested by the Sindh police on Monday morning from a private hotel.

Safdar was detained by the Sindh police after a case was registered, on the complaints of PTI workers, against 200 people including Maryam Nazawz, Capt Safdar, and other PML-N leaders at the Brigade Police Station in Karachi for violating the sanctity of Mazar-e-Quaid and chanting slogans while he visited Quaid's mausoleum with Maryam Nawaz.

The case was registered under the Quaid-i-Azam’s Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance of 1971, which explicitly forbids political activities within the premises of the mausoleum.

The PML-N leader was presented before a judicial magistrate in Karachi after his arrest who granted him the bail.

The leadership of PML-N was in Karachi to attend a rally held on Sunday under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

According to the daughter of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and vice-president of PML-N Maryam Nawaz, police had arrested Safdar after they forcefully entered the room husband and wife were staying in.

"Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt. Safdar."

PPP denies involvement of provincial government:

After Safdar's arrest was confirmed by Maryam, Sindh's Education Minister Saeed Ghani denied any involvement of the provincial government in the arrest. Saeed took to Twitter to issue a clarification and said that PPP didn't issue any directive to the police to arrest Safdar.

"What Capt(retd) Safdar did on Mizar-e-Quaid was inappropriate but the way he was arrested in condemnable. Safdar was not arrested on the directives of the Sindh government."

He alleged that Safdar's arrest was a conspiracy to dismantle the oppositions' resistance collective PDM.

PPP's senior leader Raja Parvez Ashraf, while addressing a joint press conference of PDM leaders, said that PPP's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah to investigate the matter and submit a report.

Maryam Nawaz backs PPP's account of the events:

Maryam Nawaz also addressed the presser and thanked Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his support through her ordeal. She said, "I didn't think for a moment that PPP is behind the arrest. Safdar was being threatened and his arrest is a tactic to exert pressure on me."

Meanwhile, Sindh police took to Twitter to share that Safdar was arrested according to law:

"The arrest of Capt(rt) Safdar was done according to law and the investigation will be impartial. Due process will be followed in all respect."