A video footage of the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar has surfaced, which shows two Sindh police officials breaking into the lawmaker’s room.

The footage acquired by Geo News showed that Safdar was detained by the officials of the Sindh police from his hotel room at 6:45am.

As per the video, two police vans entered the hotel premises at 6:08am and it took the cops approximately 35 minutes to detain the lawmaker from his room on the 15th floor. In the video, a plainclothed man can be seen taking instruction on phone, while another is busy in making a video of the arrested MNA.

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The video was also tweeted by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who is the spouse of Safdar. She wrote that the video reflected that a ‘state above state’ existed in Pakistan.

Safdar was arrested from his hotel room in the early hours of Monday from his hotel room for raising slogans at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and jumping over the grill surrounding the grave. The Sindh government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had distanced itself from the matter soon after the arrest.

Afterwards, the Sindh police tweeted that the arrest was lawful, but the tweet was deleted soon after it was put up. But after a few hours, the tweet was updated again, wherein the police said that Safdar was arrested as per law.

Amid reports that the Sindh Rangers took IGP Mushtaq Mahar hostage to get Safdar arrested, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) asked army general Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to launch a institutional probe into the incident. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that every police officer in Sindh, from a station house officer to senior police officers, were wondering who had “surrounded IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar’s office at 2am on Sunday night”, asking Gen Bajwa to take notice.

Subsequently, the military’s media wing tweeted that Gen Bajwa has ordered a probe into the episode. According to a statement shared by the ISPR, Gen Bajwa directed the Karachi Corps commander to “immediately inquire into the circumstances to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible”