ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party announced on Saturday its vice chairman, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, had been arrested from his residence in the federal capital hours after holding a news conference in which he said his party members were facing harassment from the state.
Qureshi served as Pakistan’s former foreign minister under the PTI administration and was appointed by Khan as the vice chairman ahead of his conviction in a graft case in which a local court handed him a three-year sentence.
Qureshi was also arrested earlier this year on May 11 after a crackdown was launched against PTI leaders and supporters following the violent protests of May 9 in which they targeted government building and military installations following Khan’s brief detention in a corruption case. He was briefly released on May 23 but was rearrested shortly afterwards.
Qureshi ultimately came out of prison on June 6, though he did not seem to be as politically active as in the past. However, he held a news conference at the National Press Club in Islamabad earlier in the day in which he said that PTI leaders and their families had been targeted by various law enforcement agencies that were raiding their houses and shutting down their businesses and factories.
“Tehreek-e-Insaf Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has been arrested again illegally,” the PTI said in a post on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “[Qureshi] was arrested by a heavy contingent of police from his residence in Islamabad. [He] is being transferred to FIA headquarters.”
The police have yet to announce the charges against the PTI vice chairman. However, he criticized the caretaker administration of Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar for not doing enough to provide a level playing field to his party ahead of the coming general elections in his news conference.
He also questioned the possibility of a delay in the national polls after the approval of a digital census, carried out in April this year, by the previous administration of Shehbaz Sharif. Pakistan’s election commission now plans to redraw hundreds of national and provincial constituencies before holding the general polls.
PTI already announced to challenge the move while pointing out that the constitution required elections to be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.
“Ten days ago, a notification was issued related to a new census,” Qureshi told the media. “Seven days ago, the National Assembly was dissolved. The constitution is clear: Article 224 (2) and Article 48 (4), if you read them together, there is no ambiguity regarding when and how the elections should be held and within what time period.”
“There is a clear 90-day restriction,” he continued. “If you surpass the 90-day deadline, it will be an unconstitutional step.”
Soon after his arrest, another PTI leader and a close aide to ex-PM Khan, Syed Zulfi Bukhari, described the development as an affirmation of his party’s “stance against all tyranny and pre poll rigging that is going on currently in Pakistan.”
He added that things had become more difficult for PTI leaders and workers since the new caretaker setup had been sworn in.
Bukhari “strongly condemned” Qureshi’s arrest while noting that several PTI supporters and sympathizers had been taken into custody by the law enforcing agencies without specifying the charges.
Several top PTI leaders have been incarcerated since the May 9 violence and continue to remain in prison. These include Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, Omar Sarfaraz Cheema and Ejaz Chaudhry who have spent more than 100 days behind bars since their arrest.
Many of those who were released announced to leave the party, with some even deciding to quit politics altogether.
