DERA ISMAIL KHAN: The Islamabad police on Saturday shifted PTI leader Ali Amin Khan Gandapur from the central jail in Dera Ismail Khan to the federal capital.

Earlier, a court of judicial magistrate-I in Dera Ismail Khan ordered the handing over of Mr Gandapur to Islamabad police. He will be produced in a court when he reaches the capital.

Mr Gandapur, a former federal minister, was arrested from outside the Peshawar High Court’s D.I. Khan bench on Thursday and sent to the central jail on a six-day judicial remand.

The Islamabad and Punjab police from Bhakkar reached Dera Ismail Khan in the morning on Saturday and sought the PTI leader’s custody from the judicial magistrate.

PTI leader summoned on Tuesday for indictment in 2013 suicide attack case

Several party workers blocked the road for traffic by burning tyres near the town hall in protest against Mr Gandapur’s arrest and transfer to Islamabad.

The local police arrested five PTI workers for violating an emergency law known as Section 144, which prohibits gatherings.

Former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak and PTI Senator Azam Swati also reached Dera Ismail Khan to express solidarity with Mr Gandapur.

They met his brothers — former provincial minister Faisal Amin Gandapur and city mayor of D.I. Khan tehsil Umar Amin Gandapur — and assured them of full legal support on behalf of the party leadership.

Talking to the media, Mr Qaiser said fake cases were being registered against the PTI, which he said was only pressing for free and fair elections.

Indictment on April 11

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court in Dera Ismail Khan has set Ali Amin Gandapur’s indictment for April 11 (Tuesday) in a 10-year-old suicide attack case in which former KP law minister Sardar Israrullah Khan Gandapur was killed.

Mr Ali’s brother, Umar Amin, is currently on bail in the same case, which was registered at the Kulachi Police Station on the complaint of a close associate of the victim.

The attack that killed Mr Israrullah happened on the first day of Eidul Azha in 2013 at the Gandapur Cottage in Kulachi.

Ali Amin Gandapur’s lawyer, Ghulam Muhammad Sapal, told Dawn that the D.I. Khan anti-terrorism court had already issued a summons requiring Mr Ali to appear on April 11 and the central jail authorities had been informed about it in writing.

However, Islamabad and Punjab police still took him with them even though the law did not allow it, he said.

Mr Sapal said that if the case of an accused was under trial in the same district, he could not be transferred to another district. “Our government is making a joke of the law,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023