PTI demands ‘missing’ KP CM Gandapur be produced within 24 hours: Qaiser
His statement came ahead of the emergency Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly session, initially rescheduled for 2pm today, but delayed due to Gandapur’s uncertain whereabouts.
The session finally started after a delay of five hours, with KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati in the chair.
“If the KP chief minister is not produced within 24 hours, the PTI will stage a nationwide protest,” Qaiser warned while speaking to reporters outside the KP Assembly.
“We categorically say that this is not an attack on Gandapur, but on the whole country. If it has happened to the PTI, it will happen to you, too as not even the chief executive of a province is safe.”
He claimed that over 1,000 PTI workers had so far been arrested.
“We do not want anarchy, we want to peacefully protest and exercise our rights,” Qaiser maintained. “The PTI would continue to protest until its last breath and with no limits as protesting was a constitutional and legal right”.
A large number of protesters reached Islamabad yesterday as PTI held a demonstration in response to their incarcerated founder, Imran Khan’s, call for a “peaceful protest”.
Different groups of protestors, including the caravan of CM Gandapur entered the capital from Taxila near Nicholson Monument after breaching the police cordon.
The CM then left the party workers in Islamabad and moved to the KP House from where he “disappeared,” sparking rumours about his arrest.
PTI leaders issued conflicting statements regarding the news of the alleged arrest, while some maintained he was “detained”, KP government spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Saif stated on X that the CM had not been “formally arrested”. He, however, added that a “heavy contingent of Rangers and police are present at the KP House.”
KP Assembly session
According to a notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, issued by the provincial government, KP Assembly Speaker Swati “called the sitting of Assembly on Sunday at 2pm which was earlier adjourned.”
The agenda for the session said that the assembly was convened to discuss the serious damage caused by the Islamabad police, Rangers and government officials as they went inside the KP CM’s residence in the capital.
According to the agenda, the ongoing session is set to discuss the “indiscriminate use of rubber bullets and shells, mistreatment of women and families”, including the damage caused to government property.
“The session will also discuss the disappearance of KP CM”, it said.
Meanwhile, around 300 PTI supporters reached the KP Assembly and started sloganeering and demanding Gandapur’s “release.” Some of them protested outside the building, while others chanted slogans from the public gallery.
On the other hand, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi refuted rumours about Gandapur’s alleged arrest, stating that he was neither in police nor any other institution’s custody. He also said that the government had “evidence of the PTI leader running from his residence.”
“I don’t know why he ran and for what reason,” the interior minister said today while speaking to the media in Islamabad.
PTI’s political committee, while criticising the “disappearance” of the chief minister, warned that there would be “serious repercussions” if Gandapur was arrested.
The KP CM, according to Barrister Saif, is on bail until October 25.
“If arrested, it will be an insult to the mandate of the people of KP, the fake government will have to answer for such unconstitutional and illegal actions,” Saif continued in his X post.
Despite Barrister Saif’s statement that Gandapur had not been “formally” detained, PTI’s leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, persist
ed in his claim that Gandapur had been “arrested” from KP House.
Gandapur on the run: Interior Minister confirms he is not in custody
Speaking to the media after the funeral prayers for martyred police constable Abdul Hamid Shah, Naqvi remarked that Gandapur was on the run, and if he was in Islamabad, he would be found, as checkpoints have been established for his capture.
He mentioned that there was footage of Gandapur fleeing from the KP House and that police have conducted raids related to three or four cases.
Expressing sorrow over the martyrdom of the injured police officer, Naqvi conveyed condolences to the family of Constable Abdul Hamid Shah, stating that he was killed by the protestors.
He assured that strict action would be taken against those involved in the officer’s murder.
Furthermore, Naqvi announced that one of the two sons of the martyr would be offered a job in the police force, and the family would receive a plot along with the martyrs’ package.