PESHAWAR: The federal government has confirmed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and several members of his cabinet have been taken into custody days after emergency rule was imposed on the province.
Junior Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry told Reuters on Monday that Afridi and some of his cabinet colleagues were placed in “preventive custody” at the chief minister’s house in Peshawar on Sunday. He said anyone facing registered cases would be charged and tried, while the others would be released.
The statement is the first on-record federal confirmation of the detentions, which the PTI had alleged a day earlier.
Separately, two police officials told AFP that about 278 workers of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had been detained across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the emergency was declared on 11 October. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
An administration official also told AFP that Afridi had first been held in “protective custody” at his official residence and was later moved to a different location, which the official would not disclose.
The emergency was imposed after days of PTI street protests demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, combined with a surge in militant violence in the province. Islamabad says the PTI-led provincial government failed to curb militancy, leaving the administration “non-functional” until security improves.
The PTI has denounced the emergency as unconstitutional and a federal power grab. Party leader Shaukat Yousafzai condemned the detentions and said the party would challenge the emergency in court.
Khan has been in prison since August 2023 on charges his party describes as politically motivated.
