Peshawar HC Directs Police Not To Take “Illegal” Action Against Families Of PTI Leaders

The Peshawar High Court has recently directed the police not to take any “illegal” step against the family of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Kamran Bangash.

This hearing came after Kamran Bangash’s brother Afnan Bangash filed a petition accusing the police of conducting illegal raids on their house and harassing him and his family members.

After the May 9 riots in Pakistan, police registered many cases against him and other leaders following which, Bangesh fled.

After PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan was taken into the custody on May 9 at the Islamabad High Court, violent confrontations broke out throughout Pakistan. During a demonstration by PTI activists, army installations and the house of the corps commander in Lahore came under attack.

Meanwhile, Advocate Ali Zaman appeared for the petitioner and stated that the police conducted several raids on his residence and he had been victimised on political grounds.

He added that the petitioner was a law-abiding citizen and was not charged with any offence.

The lawyer stated that the police had also been harassing some tenants of the petitioner.

He said that a petition had already been filed in the high court seeking details about the cases registered against Kamran so that he could approach the relevant courts to get relief.

Additional advocate general Danyal Khan Chamkani contended that points raised by the petitioner were questions of facts that could not be challenged in the constitutional jurisdiction of this court.

Furthermore, he added that the petitioner placed nothing on record in support of his contention to prove his allegations.

Also, the bench directed a lawyer to submit powers of attorney on behalf of 7 former PTI lawmakers about whom he had sought its orders for law-enforcement agencies to provide details of the cases lodged against them and orders issued for their detention.

It is observed that in the absence of any power of attorney in the name of the petitioner, the court could not issue directives to law enforcement agencies to provide the required details.

All those assembly members have gone into hiding to prevent their arrests.

They include former MNAs Arbab Aamir Ayub and Arbab Sher Ali Khan, former provincial ministers Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra and Kamran Khan Bangash, former deputy speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mahmood Jan Khan and former MPAs Asif Khan and Haji Fazal Ilahi.