Caretakers, police criticised for raids on PTI leaders’ houses

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former provincial minister Taimur Khan Jhagra on Friday condemned the caretaker government and police for entering houses of the PTI leaders during raids.

“Chief Minister, Azam Khan, IG Akhtar Hayat Gandapur and chief secretary Nadeem Akbar Chaudhry, well done for starting this new tradition. Just days ago, you gave an undertaking that you, and your government, would not take any illegal action. Today, your force, on video, arrested Kamran Bangash at 2 PM, and have not produced him in Chamkani Police Station until now. Similar raids were made on my house, Arbab Sher Ali, Irfan Saleem and Fazl Elahi,” Taimur Jhagra took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

He said that Kamran Bangash must be produced in a police station immediately. “We urge the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court to take notice, how these people working on a state salary are using state power to break the law. We trusted, and trust the Peshawar High Court in giving us justice. We kept on saying, we have nothing to hide, and want to prove our innocence. It is the law that is hiding,” Taimur Jhagra said.

To the chief justice of PHC, he said, if they were wrong, feel free to hang them. “But if the government is violating the law with impunity, then sir, please ensure that justice is done. Those ruling this province cannot escape accountability for their actions,”

While referring to a recent incident in which the police raided a house on information about the presence of former federal minister Murad Saeed in Peshawar, where a local police officer refused to register FIR against the family members and relatives of the former minister, Jhagra said that leadership and courage had nothing to do with rank.

“Good to see that a simple SHO Imranuddin, in refusing an FIR against innocent women a few days ago, is able to show greater leadership than those this province honours with the highest ranks,” he remarked.

There has been an unprecedented rise in raids by the police and other law enforcement agencies on the houses of PTI leaders, apparently to pressure them to quit Imran Khan’s PTI and join Pervez Khattak’s PTI Parliamentarians.

Some of the former ministers had gone underground and others crossed the border and settled in Afghanistan to avoid their arrest. People close to Pervez Khattak told The News that he was feeling quite disappointed as none of his former colleagues were willing to quit PTI and join him.There were reports that some PTI leaders and former legislators were likely to hold press conferences in future.