A district and sessions court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant on Tuesday for former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, escalating the legal predicament for the embattled politician in a case concerning the recovery of arms and liquor.
The directive was handed down by Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan following the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader’s persistent failure to attend court proceedings despite receiving multiple summons. The magistrate instructed police to apprehend Gandapur and present him before the court at the subsequent hearing, which is scheduled for October 28.
The legal action stems from an FIR registered against the former chief minister at the Bara Kahu Police Station in the federal capital. This is the second such order from the same court, which had issued a similar warrant last month due to his continued non-compliance with judicial summons.
This development adds to the increasing legal challenges confronting the firebrand PTI figure, who was recently removed from the KP chief minister’s office amid internal party disputes and heightened judicial scrutiny.
The PTI continues to navigate widespread legal and political pressure in the aftermath of the May 9, 2023 riots. Several of the party’s senior figures, including Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and Yasmin Rashid, are currently incarcerated in connection with various allegations.
In a related event a day prior, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi directed law enforcement to arrest Aleema Khan, the sister of PTI founder Imran Khan. She is to be produced before the court on October 22 regarding cases linked to the party’s protest on November 26 of the previous year.