PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court here has started proceedings to declare dysfunctional Chief Minister Sohail Afridi as a proclaimed offender in the Radio Pakistan attack case as the relevant police official claimed that Mr Afridi couldn’t be traced.

In the order sheet, Judge Wali Mohammad Khan noted that the detective foot constable (DFC) of the East Cantonment police station returned the warrants issued against the accused, including Sohail Afridi and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf activist Mohammad Amir Khan, with overleaf reports stating that both of them couldn’t be found or traced.

“Proclamation notices under Section 87 of CrPC should be issued against accused Sohail Afridi and Amir Khan, with notice to the DFC for recording a corroborative statement,” he said.

He fixed Nov 24 for submission of the DFC’s report and further proceedings.

Police official says dysfunctional CM remains untraced

The judge had ordered the issuance of arrest warrants for the accused on Oct 28 after a supplementary charge-sheet was submitted, naming Afridi, Amir, former provincial ministers Taimoor Saleem Khan and Kamran Bangash and PTI Peshawar president Irfan Saleem as the accused in the May 2023 ransacking and torching of the Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar.

Subsequently, the court issued warrants against Afridi and Amir on Nov 5.

The warrants issued for Mr Afridi’s arrest listed his residential address in Bara, Khyber district.

However, they didn’t describe Mr Afridi as the dysfunctional chief minister.

The other three newly nominated accused appeared before the court and were granted interim pre-arrest bail.

The dysfunctional chief minister has not been seen since the imposition of the governor’s rule and emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Oct 11. While his whereabouts remained unknown, first a federal minister and then some other government functionaries disclosed that he and some of his cabinet members were in preventive custody.

The other accused, Amir Khan, was also reportedly taken into custody a few days ago but has so far not been produced before any court.

The alleged illegal detention or abduction of Mr Afridi was challenged by his brother, Amir Khan, in the Peshawar High Court.

However, the court halted proceedings in the matter after the Federal Constitutional Court suspended its powers to hear cases under Article 199 of the Constitution.

Section 87 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) states: “If any Court is satisfied after taking evidence that any person against whom a warrant has been issued by it has absconded or is concealing himself so that such warrant cannot be executed, such Court may publish a written proclamation requiring him to appear at a specified place and at a specified time not less than thirty days from the date of publishing such proclamation.”

The law also provides that a proclamation issued by the court shall be publicly read in some conspicuous place of the town or village in which such person ordinarily resides; it shall be affixed to some conspicuous part of the house or homestead in which such person ordinarily resides or to some conspicuous place of such town or village. A copy must also be affixed to a conspicuous part of the courthouse.

Last month, the prosecution submitted a supplementary charge-sheet, nominating Mr Afridi and the other four PTI members as accused in the case. None of them had been named in the first information report or earlier charge-sheet.

The supplementary charge-sheet followed findings by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) regarding video clips purportedly showing the incident and profile pictures of the suspects.

According to a report by investigation officer Deputy Superintendent of Police Khushal Khan, Radio Pakistan Peshawar station director Tufail Ahmad recorded a supplementary statement in light of the forensic findings, nominating the five men as accused.

The forensic examination was ordered on Dec 12, 2025, on an application filed by the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation’s counsel, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani.

The PFSA subsequently concluded that the facial features of the five men matched those of suspects allegedly seen participating in the rioting in the video footage.

A Nadra report identified CNIC numbers apparently belonging to the men and described them as probable matches for the profile pictures submitted for examination.

The newly nominated accused have challenged the authenticity of the videos, claiming that the footage doesn’t relate to the incident.

The court is currently conducting the trial of 75 accused in the case, including current and former lawmakers.

The FIR was registered at the East Cantonment police station on May 10, 2023, on the complaint of then station house officer Arbab Naeem Haider under various provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2026