Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said on Thursday that Prime Minister Imran Khan was responsible for the circumstances surrounding the arrest of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law, an issue that brought the paramilitary forces and police in direct conflict in Karachi.

Abbasi said institutions such as the spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and Pakistan Rangers take their orders from the country’s Prime Minister.

“Both the institutions, the ISI and Rangers, directly report to the Premier. Someone gave them instructions and that person can only be the Prime Minister. No one else can do that.

The officials of these institutions take their orders from the country’s Premier,” he said.

Opposition parties have alleged that the Sindh police chief was reportedly taken away by paramilitary Frontier Corps from his home in Karachi on Monday and forced to order the arrest of Sharif’s son-in-law Captain (Retd) Muhammad Safdar.

Safdar was arrested on Monday from his hotel room in Karachi for protesting at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder M.A. Jinnah just before the second rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement — an alliance of 11 Opposition parties. He was released on bail on the same day.