Imran’s political ally and a journalist held

Ahmad’s arrest comes day after Fawad Chaudhry was released on bail

Shaikh Rasheed Ahmad, a politician and close ally of former prime minister Imran Khan, was arrested in the early hours of yesterday after a police complaint was registered against him.

Ahmad was arrested in an overnight raid after he accused the country’s former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Asif Zardari of plotting to kill Imran Khan.

Ahmad served as interior minister in Khan’s government and is the leader of the Awami Muslim League (AML) party he founded in 2008. He is also a strong critic of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government.

The politician claimed that he was forcibly taken from his residence in Rawalpindi by Islamabad Police. “They broke down the doors, misbehaved and hit my servants,” Ahmad said in a video posted on Twitter.

Islamabad Police tweeted a clarification stating that the police were not involved in any misconduct and “did not break any glasses nor ransacked the house.”

Fawad’s arrest comes a day after another Khan ally and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry was released after more than a week in custody over a complaint filed against him by the election commission.

Journalist arrested

In a separate development on the same day, police also arrested a TV journalist, Imran Riaz Khan, in Lahore. Riaz, who is a staunch supporter of PTI, was detained on charges of “hate speech” and over a “violence-inducing statement” aimed at creating “a rift between the general public and the state institutions”, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said.