An Islamabad court issued a warrant for the arrest of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Wednesday, ordering his detention over his continuous failure to attend hearings in a long-standing arms and alcohol recovery case.
Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan mandated that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader be apprehended and brought before the court on November 11. The proceedings were subsequently postponed until that date following Gandapur’s latest non-appearance.
This legal directive intensifies the challenges for the politician, who was recently removed from his post as KP’s chief minister. It is the second such order from the same court this month, issued in response to multiple absences by the former provincial head.
The case stems from an incident in October 2016, when authorities at the Bara Kahu Police Station registered a complaint against Gandapur. Law enforcement officials reported discovering five Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, six magazines, a bulletproof vest, teargas shells, and bottles of liquor in his vehicle.
At the time of the alleged recovery, Gandapur was a provincial minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was later charged under illegal arms and anti-narcotics statutes.
The PTI leader has consistently refuted the allegations. He maintains that the firearms were legally licensed and that the bottle police claimed contained alcohol was actually filled with honey. The case has been pending for nearly nine years, with court proceedings frequently delayed due to the politician’s repeated failure to appear.