Islamabad court rejects police request for 30-day detention of former Gilgit-Baltistan chief — Dawn
An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad, Pakistan, rejected a police request to keep Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former Gilgit-Baltistan chief Khalid Khurshid in custody for 30 days. The court sent the politician to jail on judicial remand in a case linked to the PTI protest on November 26, 2024, Dawn reports.
Court ruling
The case was heard by Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain. Islamabad police brought Khurshid to the hearing and requested that he be handed over into custody for investigative actions for 30 days. The court rejected the request and ordered that the politician be sent into judicial custody.
The case against Khurshid, who heads the PTI branch in Gilgit-Baltistan, was registered at the Aabpara police station over the party's protest in November 2024. At that time, more than 10,000 PTI supporters arrived in Islamabad despite a ban on mass gatherings and imposed restrictions. They clashed with security forces, whose number, according to the publication, stood at 20,000 personnel.
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Khurshid's detention and cases involving activists
PTI said that Khurshid was detained on October 11 along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and other people at the speaker's house in Peshawar. This happened shortly after the central authorities imposed a state of emergency and governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The publication's sources also claimed that Khurshid had been staying at the provincial chief minister's residence since 2023, avoiding detention by Gilgit-Baltistan police.
Separately, the court ordered the release of all detained PTI activists in two cases linked to the party's recent march. The investigator asked for the hearing to be adjourned to conduct an identification procedure, but the defense objected, noting that those detained had been in custody for more than 40 days. The court rejected the request to adjourn the hearing and upheld the defense's demand for the activists' release.
