LAHORE:
A day after the arrest of his brother, Shahrez Khan, police in Punjab’s provincial capital also detained Aleema Khan’s second son, Shershah Khan, on charges of vandalism during the May 9, 2023 riots. Both Shahrez and Shershah are nephews of former prime minister Imran Khan.
According to family sources, plainclothes personnel intercepted the car driven by Aleema Khan’s husband and forcefully took Shershah away. Following the arrest, Aleema Khan told the media that these actions reflected the government’s fear.
“My son was abroad. He knew that when he returned, they would arrest him, but still he came back — because we are not afraid,” she said, adding that the same people who took Shahrez away are the ones who detained Shershah.
“What they want is to stop us from conveying the PTI founder [Imran Khan’s] message [to people]. We had decided long ago that we would not bow to any pressure,” she added.
In a separate statement, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram condemned the “abduction” of Aleema’s sons “in broad daylight”. “To stop a car and abduct someone like this is tantamount to once again publicly burying this country’s constitution, law, and justice,” he said.
He described these as acts of cruelty and brutality. “This is proof that the law of the jungle prevails in Pakistan, where fundamental human rights, the judiciary, and constitutional guarantees are all being crushed under the feet of a powerful mafia,” he said.
Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore remanded Shahrez Khan in police custody for 8 days.
The police arrested Shahrez on the evening of August 21 from his house and nominated him in the Jinnah House attack case through a supplementary statement. Jinnah House — also the Lahore Corps Commander House — was attacked on May 9, 2023 after the arrest of Imran Khan on corruption charges.
On Friday, the police presented Shahrez before ATC Judge Manzer Ali Gill and requested that the accused be remanded in custody for 30 days for further investigation and recovery of evidence.
The police told the court that the accused had been nominated on September 23 in two supplementary statements in connection with the May 9 rioting. Shahrez’s counsel Salman Akram Raja argued that it is ridiculous that police remembered the accused after 27 months.
He said the accused had nothing to do with politics or such political activities and his arrest was nothing but a joke. Raja told the court that Aleema Khan’s house was raided after the Supreme Court granted Imran Khan bail in eight May 9 cases on August 21.
He said the accused was present in Chitral between May 6 or May 13 of 2023, adding that it had already been decided by courts that extensive delay in someone’s arrest shows mala fide.
He requested the court to discharge the case, noting that the accused’s mother — Aleema Khan — had also been discharged from this case.
Another counsel Rana Mudassar Umar argued that it is interesting enough that no one noticed the nomination of Shahrez Khan when challan copies were distributed during trial of the Jinnah House attack case.
The ATC judge asked the investigation officer about the role of the accused. He adjourned the court proceedings briefly while summoning the police record. The ATC judge observed that the court would first examine the case record and then decide what to do in accordance with law.
As proceedings resumed, the accused’s counsels told the court that the accused is an athlete and it is tantamount to sending a bad message to the world. The ATC judge reserved a decision on the remand’s request but then remanded the accused in custody for 8 days.
WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK
