PESHAWAR / ISLAMABAD: A couple of hours after the imposition of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was announced on Sunday, the PTI claimed that its now-dysfunctional chief minister Sohail Afridi, who was leading the party’s protest march towards Islamabad, had been taken into custody along with some other leaders.

Shafi Jan, an aide to Mr Afridi who had been accompanying him on the protest march, claimed that his boss had been “taken into custody”. Shahid Khattak, a PTI MNA, also claimed that Mr Afridi had been arrested.

Later, the PTI issued a statement condemning the “arrest” of Mr Afridi and other party leaders, describing it as an act of “political victimisation and an attempt to weaken the province’s elected leadership and democratic institutions”.

However, there was no official confirmation of his detention, although sources said that Mr Afridi and PTI’s provincial president Junaid Akbar were under house arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).

Party spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram was quoted as saying that Mr Afridi’s “arrest” could not be viewed in isolation from the federal government’s decision to impose emergency and governor’s rule.

“The developments reflect a broader effort to bypass elected institutions and undermine the constitutional authority of the province,” he added.

“The arrest of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and Junaid Akbar has exposed the political nature of the federal government’s actions. These measures are not directed at addressing security challenges; they are intended to weaken [the] PTI, undermine the elected government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and disregard the democratic will of its people,” he said.

Mr Akram demanded the “immediate and unconditional release” of Mr Afridi, Mr Akbar and “all other political detainees arrested in connection with the ongoing action against PTI”.

He also demanded that the federal government publicly disclose the “legal grounds, specific charges and procedural basis for the arrests of the chief minister and the PTI provincial president”.

However, he sounded less certain during a subsequent appearance on Geo News, saying the party had received reports of the arrests of Mr Afridi and Mr Akbar, but had been unable to confirm whether Mr Jan and Mr Khattak were also taken into custody.

“We are unable to contact some people […] Because the internet has been suspended in several areas, we are unable to make contact. You do not know the havoc they have created in KP. People are escaping and going into hiding,” he said.

Afridi’s whereabouts

In a clip shared on PTI’s official X account, the party’s secretary general Salman Akram Raja said, “We do not know where Sohail Afridi is, in what condition he has been kept. Junaid Akbar is also missing.”

In a separate statement, the PTI claimed that Mr Afridi, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and the party’s provincial president, Junaid Akbar, had been abducted. “Many PTI MNAs and MPAs were already abducted in the last few weeks,” it added.

PTI KP Deputy Information Secretary Ikram Khatana said in a statement that “the arrest of Sohail Afridi, Junaid Akbar, Babar Saleem Swati, Shahid Khattak makes it clear that it [the federal government] cannot compete with people”.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry told Geo News that some individuals had been detained in view of the law and order situation but did not confirm whether Mr Afridi was among them. “The people who are not wanted in any case will be released,” he added. “Those wanted in criminal cases will be dealt with accordingly and the rest would be sent home.”

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2026