PTI leaders dodge police dragnet

Pervez Khattak, Mahmood Khan, Atif Khan didn’t take part in protests

PESHAWAR:

All the top leaders of the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have successfully evaded FIRs in the recent crackdown against party workers in the province.

Official sources told The Express Tribune that the former chief minister Pervez Khattak, his sons Ibrahim Khattak and Imran Khattak didn’t take part in the violent protests that broke out after the arrest of Imran Khan Khan. As a result there is no case against them in any part of Nowshera district.

Similarly, former chief minister Mahmood Khan also kept aloof from these protests. As a result he has not been nominated in any FIR registered against PTI supporters in the Malakand Division.

In Swabi district former deputy speaker of National Assembly has obtained bail before arrest from court and he is in hiding.

Former minister Shehram Tarakai has been booked by Swabi police but he has successfully evaded arrest and has been in hiding.

In Mardan former minister Atif Khan has not been booked in any case so far because he didn’t take part in any protest personally.

Swat police has booked former federal minister Murad Saeed in connection with the speeches he made against intelligence agencies and his residence was raided repeatedly but he was able to dodge arrest.

There are reports that he has escaped abroad.

By the same token, former provincial minister Kamran Khan Bangash has been booked in FIR in Peshawar and his residence was raided 11 times but he disappeared soon after the protests.

“Police raided the residence of Taimur Jhagra in Hayatabad four times but he was not found,” said a police official, adding that the residence and petrol pump of former MPA Asif Khan was raided seven times but the bid to arrest him failed.

In Kohat, police arrested former minister Imtiaz Shahid Quershi along with district leadership but in Charsadda district former MNA Anwar Taj obtained bail before arrest from the court and has been in hiding.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2023.