HARIPUR: Former provincial minister and PTI local leader Yousuf Ayub Khan was arrested here on Friday evening.

Party and police sources said that he was coming from Khanpur side after addressing a public meeting of his brother and PTI candidate for PK-47, Haripur II, Arshad Ayub, when at around 6pm the police rounded him up near the Chechiyan Interchange of Hazara Motorway and shifted him to an undisclosed location.

Family sources also confirmed the arrest of Yousuf Ayub.

Police sources said that he was picked up under the Maintenance of Public Order, the law that his grandfather, Gen Ayub Khan, had promulgated in December 1960.

Yousuf Ayub is the elder brother of PTI candidates from PK-46 and PK-47 and former provincial ministers Akbar Ayub and Arshad Ayub, and first cousin of PTI general secretary and former federal minister Omar Ayub Khan.

He has been running election campaigns of his brothers and cousin.

According to prosecution records, Yousuf Ayub was on bail from a local court in two cases registered against him in the city and Sera-i-Saleh police stations in connection with May 9, 2023, protests.

However, according to police sources, the fresh charges that led to his arrest were reported provocative language aiming to incite the general public against the government institutions during the public meetings held in connection with the election campaign of his brothers and cousin, Omar Ayub Khan, a candidate for NA-18, Haripur.

After winning the election for the first time in 1988, Yousuf Ayub served Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao’s government from 1988-90 as transport minister when a group of independent MPAs from Hazara and other areas decided to lend their support to PPP in forming the government.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2024