As a member of the PTI, Shehryar Afridi has been detained for violating the Maintenance of Peace Order.
The former interior minister and his wife were taken from Islamabad.

In an ongoing crackdown against the party’s leadership and members, police in ISLAMABAD on Tuesday arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi.
The party claims that the former interior minister and his wife were “picked up” from Islamabad.
This time, ex-interior minister Shehryar Afridi was taken into custody together with his politically apolitical wife. Under the current fascist administration, the PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Twitter account informed its followers.
The former interior minister was reportedly arrested under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance of 1960, which allows the government to arrest anyone “acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety.”
The arrest of Afridi follows several others of top PTI officials. Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, Shireen Mazari, and Fayyazul Hassan Chauhan are among the PTI leaders who have been arrested since Imran Khan, the party’s chairman and former prime minister, was arrested last week amid widespread protests and rioting.
Some party leaders have been released from jail while others are still being held. Authorities have arrested dozens of civilians, including women, across the country in the past week on charges of rioting and destruction in response to Imran’s arrest.
On May 9, 2023, paramilitary Rangers carried out a swift raid on behalf of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), storming the Islamabad High Court (IHC) where Imran had appeared in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case to face graft proceedings against him.
In PTI’s words, the “abduction” occurred before the court case had started. While maintaining that the arrest itself was legal, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq questioned the manner of arrest and issued contempt summons to the interior secretary and the Islamabad inspector-general of police (IGP).
After Imran and his legal team initially refused to appear in court for a separate graft case, the next day the IHC granted NAB an eight-day physical remand of the PTI leader and indicted him.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that Imran’s arrest was unlawful and ordered that he be released on May 11. With the PTI and the federal government at odds and accusing the judicial and security forces of tampering with democratic procedures, the political environment remains volatile.