Imran Ismail, a PTI member, was detained in Karachi.
Protests on May 9 that targeted crucial government buildings prompted a crackdown on party leadership.
Colleagues in KARACHI say that on Friday, Imran Ismail, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former governor of Sindh, was taken into custody.
Adnan Ismail, Imran Ismail’s brother, informed the Express Tribune that police and other law enforcement agents had arrested their brother after conducting a raid on his home in DHA phase 8.
“SSP Keamari and some officials in plain clothes who happened to be law enforcement agencies personnel have shifted him to an undisclosed location,” he claimed.
PTI leaders claim that he has been transferred to Darakhshan Police Station as part of an ongoing crackdown against party leadership in response to the violent protests that erupted after the arrest of PTI chief Imran Khan.
Leaders and thousands of PTI members and sympathizers have been imprisoned, and the PTI has demanded their release.
Meanwhile, another PTI leader, Ali Zaidi, a former federal minister who was transferred to a district jail yesterday, has had a plea filed against him in sessions court Jacoababd for torture.
The court then served notice on the correctional district and will be holding a hearing on Saturday (tomorrow).
Notably, he was placed under home arrest despite an earlier order from the Sindh government to have him detained for a month. However, a notice rescinding the reprieve was issued just two days ago. He was transferred to the Jacobabad District Jail.
Imran Khan, head of the PTI, has spoken out firmly against what he calls the “illegal arrests and abduction” of party members and officials.
The former prime minister took to Twitter two days ago to bring attention to the continued incarceration of PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and secretary general Asad Umar.
To paraphrase his words, he said that “despite court orders, journalist Imran Riaz Khan was not presented in court” with “confirmed” reports of torture against him.
Imran had also questioned why Shehrayar Afridi’s wife was in jail and called for the “immediate release” of all female PTI officials, employees, and family members.
The PTI president, in a new statement released two weeks after the May 9 riots, also condemned the attack on Jinnah House, calling it a ‘disgrace’ to the country.
