KP CM Sohail Afridi, assembly speaker in preventative custody: police

Suspended Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sohail Afridi and some of his cabinet members are in preventative custody, officials confirmed on Monday.

The PTI had reported their detention on Sunday, shortly after the Centre imposed emergency and governor’s rule in the province under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution.

On Monday, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry told Reuters, “Yes, I can confirm that the chief minister (Sohail Afridi) and some of his cabinet members have been taken into preventive custody.”

If any of them have any cases to be tried against them, they will be charged and tried but the others will be released, he said, adding that the detentions happened on Sunday.

A senior police official privy to the developments also confirmed to Dawn that eight people — including Afridi, MNA Junaid Akbar and assembly speaker Babar Saleem Swati — had been taken into “preventative custody”.

As of Sunday, even Afridi’s party members said they did not know about his whereabouts. Sources had said that the chief minister and Akbar were under house arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).

Meanwhile, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram has said Afridi’s “arrest” could not be viewed in isolation from the federal government’s decision to impose emergency and governor’s rule.

He contended that the arrests had “exposed the political nature of the federal government’s actions”.

“These measures are not directed at addressing security challenges; they are intended to weaken [the] PTI, undermine the elected government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and disregard the democratic will of its people,” Akram added.