Police have placed suspended Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sohail Afridi and Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati in preventative custody, Dawn reported on Monday. A senior police official told Dawn that eight people are in that custody, including Afridi, MNA Junaid Akbar and Swati.
What police and the minister said
Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry told Reuters, in the account Dawn carried: "Yes, I can confirm that the chief minister (Sohail Afridi) and some of his cabinet members have been taken into preventive custody." He said the detentions happened on Sunday. If any of them have cases to be tried, they will be charged and tried, and the others will be released. Dawn's report does not name a charge against Afridi.
Dawn said sources had earlier described Afridi and Akbar as under house arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order. As of Sunday, the paper said, even Afridi's party members did not know where he was.
How Dawn describes the hold
Dawn's headline says preventative custody. It does not describe a conviction or a completed criminal case. PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram, quoted by Dawn, used the word arrest and said the step could not be separated from the emergency and governor's rule. That is his characterisation. The police account Dawn reports is preventative custody, with no charge named.
