Nawaz Sharif shouldn’t have been handcuffed, says chained PTI leader

Expressing his regret, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) incarcerated leader Ali Muhammad Khan — apparently diverging from his party’s stance — on Saturday said that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif “shouldn't have been handcuffed” when he was arrested in their tenure.

“Today I am handcuffed. I was against handcuffing Nawaz Sharif and issued a statement [against it] as well. Despite our political differences, he was a former prime minister and should not have been handcuffed,” said the PTI leader while speaking to reporters at a local court in Mardan on Saturday.

“[..] because this not the prime minister but 220 million people of the country who are handcuffed,” he said.

He was referring to the ousted prime minister Nawaz and his daughter Maryam Nawaz arrest upon arrival in Lahore in 2018 after the duo were sentenced in absentia on corruption charges.

A day earlier, Ali Muhammad Khan was arrested for the fifth time after being released from the Jail in Mardan.

The PTI leader was released from the prison after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) discharged him from all the cases related to May 9 mayhem and attacks on civil and military installations.

The court ordered the authorities to release if his arrest was not required in any other case.

Soon after his release, the officials of the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) took him into custody in another case from outside the ATC premises.