ISLAMABAD: The pri­n­ci­pal secretary to former prime minister Imran Khan and a serving high-ranking bureaucrat, Azam Khan, has been missing from the capital since Thu­rsday evening, his family said.

In this connection, a kidnapping case was registered by Kohsar Police on Friday, while PTI chief Imran Khan claimed that everyone close to him was being targeted.

Islamabad police registered the case on a complaint of Azam Khan’s nephew, Mohammad Saeed Khan. According to the complaint, Azam Khan, who is a serving grade-22 PAS officer, left his house in Islamabad between 6.30-7pm for an appointment on June 15 and has not been in communication with anyone since then.

The applicant and his family have checked all possible contacts to trace his whereabouts and so far had not been able to trace Mr Khan, it said, adding that his phone was also switched off.

Mr Saeed lodged a complaint with Kohsar Police on Friday morning for registration of a case over his disappearance, and the case was registered later in the evening.

Talking to Dawn, he said that when his uncle went missing, his family was in their hometown of Mardan to attend a funeral, while Azam Khan had remained in Islamabad alone.

He said he last spoke to his uncle on Thursday at around 5.30pm and later his mobile phone was swi­t­ched off when he called him again, Saeed Khan said.

On their Twitter account, the capital police said they would take legal action regarding the disappearance of Azam Khan. People were asked to contact the helpline ‘15’ if they had any information regarding Azam Khan.

Meanwhile, PTI chief Imran Khan tweeted that anyone who was perceived to be close to him and critical of the current regime was being targeted, as Azam Khan had gone missing while ex-Punjab governor Latif Khosa’s house was attacked.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023