On Saturday an anti-terrorism court (ATC)—a special bench that tries terrorism-linked matters—in Islamabad ordered former Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) chief minister Khalid Khurshid into jail on judicial remand in an Aabpara police station case tied to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demonstration of 26 November. Investigators had produced him before Judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain seeking temporary police custody for further questioning. The bench refused that bid and directed prison custody under the court’s supervision instead.
What the court decided
Officers told the judge they needed physical custody—holding a suspect at a police facility while inquiries continue—so they could press ahead with the protest file. They also said he had stayed out of reach for a long stretch. Public accounts of the hearing do not spell out a detailed defence reply to that claim. The outcome is clear: the request for investigative custody failed, and he remains under court-ordered detention in prison rather than in a police lock-up.
One account of the sitting said investigators had asked for as much as thirty days of police custody. Whatever length they sought, the ATC’s answer was the same—no investigative holding, only court-ordered jail detention.
How he reached the Islamabad courtroom
Production papers listed him together with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati. PTI’s official channels said the former chief minister was picked up on 11 October at Speaker House in Peshawar, along with the speaker and several other people.
After word of the detention spread, his son Hanifullah approached the Peshawar High Court. The filing asks judges to secure his father’s recovery and to preserve video recordings from Speaker House. Respondents named include the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of police, the capital city police officer, and other officials.
Earlier rulings that still shape his legal position
Separate from the Islamabad protest file, a GB anti-terrorism bench in December 2024 convicted him over alleged threats aimed at security agencies while addressing a public crowd and imposed a 34-year prison term plus a Rs600,000 fine. That outcome sits beside older political history: Astore voters chose him for the GB assembly on a PTI ticket in the 2020 polls, after which he took office as chief minister. In July 2023 the GB Chief Court barred him from public office after finding he secured a GB Bar Council licence using a fraudulent educational degree.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Islamabad ke ATC ne pehle GB ke chief minister Khalid Khurshid ko jail mein judicial remand par bhej diya. Police unhein physical custody mein lena chahti thi taake 26 November ke PTI protest se linked Aabpara case ki tafteesh aage barhe, lekin judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain ne yeh darkhwast mustarad kar di. Unhein Babar Saleem Swati ke sath pesh kiya gaya; beta Hanifullah ne Peshawar High Court mein darkhwast di hai. Alag case mein GB ATC ne pehle hi unhein 34 saal qaid aur Rs600,000 jurmana diya tha.
