CM Gandapur ‘reaches’ Peshawar after disappearance rumours

After being “missing” for hours during the crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, over alleged legal violations related to the party’s gathering in Islamabad, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had arrived in Peshawar, sources said on Tuesday.

PTI member Shahid Khattak, a member of the National Assembly (MNA), verified the news. According to reports, the chief minister was “busy in various meetings” in the federal capital following the party’s power display.

According to the previous governing party, Gandapur met with government representatives to discuss the state of law and order in the province, but he was unable to be reached because of mobile phone jammers at the meeting site.

This announcement comes after PTI expressed worries about the KPK chief minister potential arrest as he was unreachable for more than eight hours. Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, the KP CM’s Information Adviser, claimed a day earlier that the federal government may have been taken him into custody.

While expressing his doubts, the PTI leader asked the federal government to let them know where the missing CM is.

Saif’s worries were sparked by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent crackdown on the PTI leadership for allegedly breaking the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, as Barrister Gohar Khan, the party’s chairman, and legislator Sher Afzal Marwat were arrested from outside the Parliament House.

Other arrested party leaders include Zain Qureshi, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Naseem-ur-Rehman, Zubair Khan, Shoaib Shaheen and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza.

Authorities had filed cases against several leaders of the PTI under the newly-passed law mentioning at least 28 local leaders including Seemabia Tahir and Raja Basharat.

The first information report (FIR) stated that charged PTI workers assaulted police forced when officers attempted to stop them from violating Islamabad rally route.