The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted protective bail to new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi till November 18.
After a week-long constitutional and political crisis in the province over the chief minister’s election, Afridi was sworn in as the KP CM yesterday evening, with hundreds of PTI supporters present during the ceremony at the Governor House in Peshawar.
A two-member bench comprising PHC’s Senior Puisne Judge Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Muhammad Naeem Anwar took up Afridi’s bail application today, with the chief minister appearing before the court in person.
During the hearing, Justice Ijaz asked whether there were any first information reports (FIR) registered against the KP chief minister.
“We do not know how many FIRs there are. It is possible that there might be an FIR against me as well,” KP Advocate General Shah Faisal Uthmankhel told the court.
Subsequently, the court approved CM Afridi’s bail plea, barring his arrest in any case till November 18.
According to the court order, available with media.com, the bench directed that details regarding criminal cases, if any, registered against Afridi be provided at the next hearing on November 18.
Speaking to the media outside the PHC, Afridi said that the federal and “those individuals who are preventing the meeting [with Imran] should realise that a province’s chief minister is coming”.
Responding to a reporter’s query, Afridi said he has not met Imran since he was imprisoned. He also refuted a list of names for his new cabinet that has been circulating on social media as “fake”.
Asked whether the provincial cabinet will be finalised after his meeting with the PTI founder, CM Afridi replied in the affirmative. “No action will be taken without the approval of our lifelong [party] chairman sahib,” he asserted.
Shortly after the hearing, PTI lawyer Naeem Panjhuta said on social media platform X that Afridi had departed for Adiala Jail to meet party founder Imran Khan, who has been incarcerated since August 2023 in multiple cases.
CM’s Focal Person on Digital Media Yar Muhammad Khan Niazi also shared a video on X, saying that the chief minister was on his way to Adiala Jail.
Later in the afternoon, the PTI claimed that the authorities were “not letting” CM Afridi meet Imran, terming it the “real anti-Pakistan act”.
“They are isolating the very leadership that millions of Pakistanis trust. They fear the people standing together with Imran Khan,” the party said on its official X account.
Speaking at a checkpoint situated near Adiala jail, the chief minister assured the people gathered there that he would not disappoint them.
Yesterday, the KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department requested the secretary of its Punjab counterpart and the interior ministry secretary that “necessary arrangements” be made to facilitate Afridi’s meeting with Imran today, according to a letter shared by Niazi.
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