Pakistan’s former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed arrested

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, former interior minister of Pakistan and a close ally of Imran Khan was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, reported Geo News.

The police confirmed that Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was arrested from Murree Motorway. However, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed contradicted the police’s version and said that the authorities took him into custody along with his nephew, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq from his house in Rawalpindi and not the motorway, reported Geo News.

He said he feared for his life. “My crime is that I’m standing with Imran Khan,” he said at the Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad, where he was taken for medical checkup, reported Geo News. “I have been a minister 16 times. Never for a single time, I have been charged with corruption in these ministries,” he added.

Notably, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Rawalpindi Division President Raja Inayat Ur Rehman had filed a case against Rashid in Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station for causing a “permanent danger” to former president Asif Ali Zardari by alleging that PPP Chairman was hatching a plot to assassinate the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan.

In the FIR, Rehman stated that the AML chief tried to badmouth the former president and cause a “permanent danger” to the PPP co-chairman and his family, reported Geo News.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan condemned the arrest of his close aide and blamed the interim Punjab government — led by media mogul Moshin Naqvi — for being biased, reported Geo News.

“Strongly condemn arrest of Sh Rasheed. Never in our history have we had such a biased, vindictive Caretaker govt appt by totally discredited ECP. Question is can Pak afford a street movement which we are being pushed towards at a time when we have been bankrupted by Imported Govt?” tweeted Imran Khan.

The AML also chief alleged that at least “100 to 200 armed people” raided his residence.
“They entered the house through ladders, broke the doors and windows of the house, and beat my servants.” He also claimed that the police forcibly hustled him into their vehicle.

The AML chief said the police arrested him despite the fact that a court granted him bail and ordered the inspector-general of police to appear before the court on February 6, reported Geo News.

Claiming that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah is “behind all this,” he said that truth would prevail at the end of the day and he stands by Khan — in whose cabinet he served as the interior minister.
The FIR added that AML chief Rashid, with his provocatory allegations, wants to cause a fight between the PTI and the PPP and disrupt the country’s peace.

Initially, the Muree Police had arrested him and later they handed him over to the Islamabad Police, who shifted him to the Aabpara Police Station, where the case has been registered, reported Geo News.
The former minister was shifted to the Secretariat police station after his medical checkup at the Polyclinic hospital.

The PTI chairman Imran Khan had in January alleged that Zardari was hatching as well as financing an assassination plot against him for which the ex-president had hired “terrorists,” reported Geo News.
“…there’s a Plan C. Asif Zardari is behind it. He has amassed a lot of money through corruption and he has invested that money in terrorists and hired a militant organisation,” the PTI chief had alleged. However, the PPP strongly denied the claim and served a legal notice to Khan.