Dawn reports that within a couple of hours of the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI said its now-dysfunctional chief minister Sohail Afridi, who was leading the party’s march toward Islamabad, had been taken into custody along with other leaders.
What PTI said
Shafi Jan, an aide who had been with Afridi on the march, said his boss had been taken into custody. Shahid Khattak, a PTI MNA, said Afridi had been arrested. The party then condemned what it called the arrest of Afridi and other leaders, and called it political victimisation.
Spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram demanded the immediate release of Afridi, provincial president Junaid Akbar and others, and asked the federal government to state the legal grounds. On Geo News afterwards, Dawn says, he sounded less sure: the party had reports of the arrests of Afridi and Akbar, but could not confirm whether Jan and Khattak had also been held. He said internet shutdowns in several areas had cut contact.
In a clip on PTI’s official X account, secretary general Salman Akram Raja said: “We do not know where Sohail Afridi is, in what condition he has been kept. Junaid Akbar is also missing.” A separate PTI statement said Afridi, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and Junaid Akbar had been abducted. Deputy information secretary Ikram Khatana named Afridi, Akbar, Swati and Shahid Khattak.
What is confirmed, and what is not
Dawn says there was no official confirmation of the detention. Sources told the paper that Afridi and Junaid Akbar were under house arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order. State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry told Geo News that some people had been detained because of the law and order situation, and did not confirm that Afridi was among them. He said people not wanted in any case would be released, and those wanted in criminal cases would be dealt with accordingly.
