Top PTI and SIC Leaders Briefly Detained During Attempted Visit to Imran Khan in Adiala Jail

RAWALPINDI – Key opposition leaders from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), including Omar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar, and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza, were briefly detained by the Punjab Police on Tuesday for allegedly violating Section 144. The leaders had gathered at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to meet PTI founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned for over a year.

The delegation reportedly aimed to discuss the party’s protest and future strategies with Khan. Aliya Hamza Malik, another PTI member present at the jail, was not detained, as she was standing apart from the group. Omar Ayub, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, told reporters that a court had granted the group permission to meet Khan prior to their arrival at Adiala.

Senate Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz, speaking to local media outlet, Geo News, explained that the group sought to confer with Khan on PTI’s planned protest efforts and other political moves.

Punjab Police informed that the arrests were made due to the imposition of Section 144, which was enacted in Rawalpindi earlier in the week to prevent large gatherings ahead of a PTI rally. PTI criticized the arrests, claiming they were “unjust” and urging authorities to “immediately release” their leaders, calling the detentions a violation of their legal rights to meet Khan.

In other legal developments, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi issued an arrest warrant for PTI leader Sheikh Waqas Akram, who faces two terrorism-related cases in the Attock district for failing to appear in court.