Threats to security agencies: Ex-GB CM Khalid Khurshid sentenced to 34 years

GILGIT: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced former Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader to 34 years in prison for threatening security agencies.

The court, apart from the sentence, also handed down a fine of Rs600,000 to the former chief minister while directing the inspector general of police to arrest and transfer him to jail. The ATC further ordered the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) director general to block the politician’s computerised national identity card (CNIC).

Khurshid was booked for threatening security agencies, GB’s chief secretary, and chief election commissioner with serious consequences during a PTI power show on May 26, 2024. A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the PTI leader at GB’s City Police Station under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). However, the former chief executive remained an absconder and was absent from case proceedings. Elected to the office in 2020, Khurshid was disqualified by GB’s Chief Court in July 2023 for holding a fake degree under articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

The ex-CM had attached a fake degree from the University of London in his nomination papers, after which the Higher Education Commissioner (HEC) officially requested the varsity to verify his degree, which was declared “fake” in an official response by the institution.

The politician had joined the PTI in 2018 and was elevated to the position of Diamer-Astore’s divisional president. Recently, Khurshid, as per The News, was booked in multiple cases with regard to the party’s protest at Islamabad’s D-Chowk in October.