PTI’s Asad Qaiser, Pervez Khattak ‘out of reach since morning’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leaders Asad Qaiser and Pervez Khattak reportedly went missing on Thursday after they went to meet someone at an undisclosed location, their spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that both leaders — Qaiser, former National Assembly speaker and Khattak, ex-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister — left for an undisclosed location at 11 in the morning to "meet someone".

In a statement, the KP police have denied taking the PTI leaders into custody.

Earlier today, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) fixed Qaiser’s petition — seeking the direction of authorities to restrain them from arresting the PTI leader under Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) — for hearing tomorrow (Friday).

The close aides of party chairman Imran Khan are also part of the negotiating committee formed by the latter to hold talks with the incumbent government to break the political deadlock.

The development came as hundreds of PTI workers and leaders have been arrested for their alleged involvement in May 9 riots with several bigwigs including Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry, Aamir Mehmood Kiani and others have parted ways with the party chief.

Earlier today, PTI President Parvez Elahi was arrested by anti-corruption officials from outside his home in Lahore in connection with a corruption case.

He was wanted in the Rs70 million corruption case related to the embezzlement of development funds allocated for the Gujrat district.

The anti-corruption court judge had also discarded his bail in the case after declaring Elahi's medical certificate bogus which claimed that he had been experiencing chest pain.

The anti-corruption spokesperson in a statement said Elahi was taken into custody while trying to flee and added that he was wanted in various corruption cases.