ISLAMABAD: Omar Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and general secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has said an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had issued arrest warrants against him after which police had raided his home in Islamabad on Sunday amid what the party says is a widening crackdown against its leaders.
Top leaders of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI are facing multiple legal cases they say are part of a state campaign of intimidation and harassment against the popular party. Khan has himself been in prison since last August and numerous PTI leaders are behind bars or on the run from criminal and terrorism charges that they say are politically motivated. Many of the charges were filed after Khan’s first arrest in May last year led to riots in which his supporters attacked and damaged government and military buildings. The ATC case against Omat also relates to the May 9 riots. The government says it is not persecuting the PTI.
On Saturday, the district administration of Islamabad revoked permission for the PTI to hold a rally while Amnesty International last week expressed concern over what it called the ‘forced disappearances’ of three family members of PTI members. The party has also said a senior member of its social media team had been “abducted” ahead of the now postponed Islamabad rally.
The PTI and Khan have also rejected the results of Feb. 8 general elections over rigging after which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed a fragile coalition at the center.
“Arrest warrants issued for me for ATC Sargodha. Mianwali police and Islamabad police teams went to my Islamabad house to arrest me a few minutes ago,” Omar said on X, saying the government and intelligence agencies “must be very desperate to arrest the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.”
“They will prove beyond doubt that there is no rule of law in Pakistan,” Ayub said, adding that the party would continue its “lawful struggle.”
PTI party spokesperson Raoof Hasan told Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper that Omar was not at home when police raided and he was now in a “safe place. He said police required prior permission from the National Assembly speaker before conducting a raid to arrest a lawmaker, which had not been taken.
