PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur arrested

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur was arrested from outside the Peshawar High Court Circuit Bench here on Thursday evening.

A large contingent of police, led by District Police Officer Abdul Rauf Qaisrani, reached the entrance to the PHC Circuit Bench building after Gandapur arrived there along with his lawyer in a bid to avoid his possible arrest early in the day.

The police team arrested him and shifted him to an unknown location as soon as he came out of the building in the evening after failing to win any relief.

Earlier, Ali Amin Gandapur’s lawyer, Ghulam Muhammad Sappal, told reporters that his client had been granted protective bail till April 8 by the PHC Circuit Bench on March 22 in the case of a scuffle and firing at the police in the Bhakkar district of Punjab. He was asked to appear in court on April 12.

He said his client appeared in the sessions court on Thursday to secure a pre-arrest bail, adding Gandapur’s protective bail had been approved in all cases in the sessions court.

“When we came out of the courtroom, the doors of the sessions court were closed and the police were there to arrest Ali Amin Gandapur,” the lawyer said.

The counsel said that after approaching the sessions judge again who sought an explanation from the DPO, they were informed they had received directives from “high-ups” to arrest Gandapur.

He immediately submitted an application with the PHC Circuit Bench, requesting the court to ask the police which cases had been registered against Gandapur for his arrest. Before surrendering to the police, Gandapur alleged that the police were bent upon arresting him despite the fact that he had secured protective bails from the court of law in all cases instituted against him.

The PTI leader said his lawyers asked for details of the first information reports registered against him in Islamabad and Dera Ismail Khan and the sessions court was approached and he obtained a bail.

He said that he had trust in the courts and that was why he was appearing in all cases. When a group of journalists present at the time of his arrest asked him where he was being taken after the arrest, he said he had no information.

He vowed to stand by PTI Chairman Imran Khan as the latter, according to him, was struggling for real freedom.

Meanwhile, the HRCP said in a statement issued Thursday, PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur’s arrest under PPC Section 124-A, the sedition law, is deplorable, particularly when the Lahore High Court had recently struck down this colonial law.

The RCP demanded that Amin Gandapur be released, and that the government and law enforcement authorities desist from using such deplorable tactics to stifle political dissent.