NA reverberates with condemnation after raid at Achakzai’s house

The PPP and opposition parties including the PTI and JUI-F condemned on Monday yesterday's raid at Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP)’s chairman and presidential candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai's house in Quetta.

A day earlier, the PkMAP alleged that the police raided the house of the party chief without justification and arrested his guard. The party claimed the raid was in reaction to a speech delivered by Achakzai in a recent National Assembly session.

Condemning the raid in a presser yesterday, the party's central secretary general Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal announced a protest against the incident on Monday (today). He added that the PkMAP and its leadership could not be intimidated by such actions.

Addressing the NA session today, the PkMAP chief maintained that his house was raided for “talking about the supremacy of Parliament”.

Also speaking at today's NA session, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari condemned the raid, urging the prime minister to take notice of it. The PPP leader called for a prompt investigation and maintained that such attempts were unnecessarily making the presidential election controversial.

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PTI chairperson Barrister Gohar Ali Khan expressed strong reservations about the raid at Achakzai’s house. He maintained that the action violated the sanctity and privacy of the lawmaker's house. PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan also condemned the raid, commenting, “If we keep moving in circles and continue to fight, the 250 million people will continue to suffer”.

The JUI-F spokesperson also condemned the police raid on Mahmood Khan Achakzai's house and termed it regrettable.

Quetta deputy commissioner - who conducted Sunday’s raid in coordination with the local administration, police, and the revenue department claimed that the raid was to recover an empty plot that happened to be near Achakzai's residence.

“A person was arrested for interfering with the state's affairs and pointing a weapon at the assistant commissioner,” he informed. The deputy commissioner further maintained that Achakzai had occupied two-and-a-half kanal of government-owned land by erecting walls around it.