Agencies
Police on Monday arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of the National Assembly Maulana Nasim Ali Shah from his madrassa, Al-Markaz-ul-Islami, in Ghoriwala, Bannu.
A video circulating on social media purportedly showed police officers taking the lawmaker away. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, the cases, if any, registered against him, and his whereabouts following the operation had not been officially confirmed.
The video purportedly showing the arrest was also shared from the detained MNA’s X account.
The arrest came amid a wider crackdown on PTI leaders and workers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) following the imposition of governor’s rule and a state of emergency in the province on October 11.
Non-functional chief minister Sohail Afridi, PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar and K-P Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati were among the senior party figures taken into protective custody following the federal government’s intervention. Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry also confirmed that Afridi and some members of his cabinet had been placed in preventive custody.
According to a petition filed by Sohail Afridi’s brother, Muhammad Aamir, in the Peshawar High Court (PHC), the former K-P chief minister was allegedly taken from the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar on October 11 by armed, masked men in the presence of the city’s police chief. The petition sought his recovery, disclosure of his whereabouts, and a judicial inquiry into the alleged detention.
In a related incident, Afridi’s lawyer, advocate Muhammad Bashir, was also reportedly picked up outside the PHC after filing a petition challenging the former chief minister’s detention. He was later released, according to media reports.
Police also arrested PTI workers in several parts of the province amid the party’s planned long march towards Islamabad.
In Swabi, police reported arrests of party workers, while six PTI supporters were detained in Khyber district during protests against governor’s rule.
Separately, PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters Aleema Khan, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained for 30 days under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance in September, ahead of the party’s planned Islamabad march. Imran’s nephews, Shahraiz Khan and Sher Shah, were also briefly detained and later released, according to their lawyer.
The federal government imposed governor’s rule and a state of emergency in K-P on October 11, citing security concerns and what it described as the provincial government’s disengagement from counterterrorism efforts. PTI rejected the measures as unconstitutional and challenged them in the Peshawar High Court.