ISLAMABAD: Police are likely to seize the property of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leaders who had been declared proclaimed offenders, investigators pursuing the cases registered against them told Dawn.

After receiving arrest warrants for the accused, including Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri, police on Friday had a court declare the two men ‘proclaimed offenders’, which will allow law enforcement agencies to seize their property under sections 87 and 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

So far, the government has not appeared to be interested in arresting the two men and police had standing orders not to arrest them, until Nov 14, sources said. But police are bound to act in accordance with the law, because a court can easily ask investigators about the delay in making the arrests. At that point, no one will be prepared to say that there was political pressure to hold back, they said.

“How can we prove this? No one from the government will take responsibility for it later or testify that they gave the order to hold back.”

A senior police officer told Dawn that, according to law, a challan should be submitted in court within 15 days of an FIR being lodged. Police are bound to arrest the accused and produce them in court. In such cases, he said, police must give the court a genuine reason to explain why the accused are not in custody and convince it that police are doing everything they can to ensure their incarceration.

“Now the department is using legal recourse, which is available to them in case an accused goes into hiding to avoid arrest. Arrest warrants, proclamations and, eventually, the seizure of their property are all things that can be done to ensure that the accused surrender to the police,” he said.

Even though most of the accused are in Islamabad, the officer said, police cannot arrest them.

“Everyone knows Imran Khan and other party leaders are present at D-Chowk, but police will not raid the sit-in because it could provoke the crowd and result in a massive law and order situation,” he said.

In practice, he said, arrest warrants are served at the residence of the accused. Police did conduct raids at Mr Khan’s residence, but he was not there. In cases where the accused cannot be found at their residence, a copy of the warrant is pasted there. Most PTI and PAT leaders have not been home in months, making it difficult for police to find them, he said.

Now, though, their status as proclaimed offenders means that orders for their arrest will be issued to all law enforcement officers in the country. The next step, he said, would be the seizure of their properties.

“But the arrests can only be made when the government gives the signal,” the officer concluded.

Published in Dawn, November 15th , 2014Newspaper.Islamabad:LatestNews