PESHAWAR: The special committee formed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s speaker on Monday raised serious objections to the nomination of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi in the May 2023 mob attack on the Peshawar Radio Pakistan’s building, asserting that without geo-fencing, the move amounts to a conspiracy against the province’s chief executive.

“Nadra and Punjab’s Forensic Science Laboratory, in their reports, failed to prove CM Afridi’s presence at the Radio Pakistan building during the mob attack as geo-fencing wasn’t done,” treasury MPA Malik Adeel Iqbal told Dawn following a committee meeting at the provincial assembly here.

Besides Mr Iqbal, MPAs Samiullah, Tariq Saeed, Asif Masood, Rashid Khan and Ahmad Kundi, the advocate general, senior officials from the home department and police, as well as relevant officers of the provincial assembly, also attended the meeting.

The Radio Pakistan attack occurred during violent protests in May 2023 that erupted after the arrest of former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan in Islamabad.

Calls for ‘authentic records, accurate identification’ in the case

In the meeting, the committee members observed that the reports had failed to prove Mr Afridi’s presence at the Radio Pakistan building.

They observed that seven out of 85 people nominated for the attack were proclaimed offenders, while many were exonerated but all of a sudden, a case was filed, with the nomination of Mr Afridi, according to MPA Iqbal.

He said that Radio Pakistan’s lawyer produced a USB two years after the incident that carried Mr Afridi’s picture but that image was not from the Radio Pakistan’s building.

Mr Iqbal said that three Radio Pakistan Peshawar’s employees were questioned, with one saying he didn’t see the chief minister at the mob attack site.

“The committee has expressed concerns over the compilation of the report without the site geo-fencing,” he said.

On Dec 5, 2025, the provincial cabinet approved the formation of a special committee to probe the Radio Pakistan attack, while on Dec 12, an anti-terrorism court ordered the forensic examination of the relevant videos and facial recognition of the accused by Nadra and Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory.

The video clips and profile pictures provided for forensic examination included that of CM Afridi, former provincial ministers Taimoor Saleem Jhagra and Kamran Bangash, PTI Peshawar district president Irfan Saleem and another activist Amir Khan Chamkani.

In light of forensic reports of Nadra and Punjab Forensic Science Agency, the investigation officer nominated five more accused, including Mr Afridi and two former provincial ministers, according to official sources.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the KP Assembly’s Secretariat read that the advocate general informed the committee about significant developments regarding the incident and said initially, a total of 86 individuals were implicated in the incident.

He, however, said at the current stage, the scope of the investigation had been narrowed down, focusing only on six individuals.

The advocate general said that the video footage presented in the court didn’t completely match the alleged incident, necessitating a more meticulous examination of the evidence.

He said that obtaining authentic records and accurate identification information was essential for the progress of the case.

“The court has instructed the relevant authorities to provide the necessary information and records by the next hearing to ensure the investigation can proceed transparently and effectively,” the statement read.

It added that the committee expressed its determination to accurately identify the elements involved in the incident and to formulate effective and actionable recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future.

The committee emphasised that the primary objective of the investigation was to assess the facts so that the actual elements involved in the incident could be identified and no innocent person was implicated.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2026