PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Wednesday re-issued arrest warrants for dysfunctional Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and a PTI activist in the Radio Pakistan attack case.
The case relates to the attack, vandal-ism and arson at the Radio Pakistan Peshawar building during the May 9-10, 2023, violent protests.
Judge wali Mohammad Khan also extended interim pre-arrest bail for PTI leaders and former provincial ministers Taimur Saleem Jhagra and Kamran Bangash, as well as the party’s Peshawar president, Irfan Saleem, until Nov 17.
The three accused appeared beforethe court on Wednesday along with their counsel, Ali Gohar Durrani and Barrister Sarwar Muzaffar Shah.
Ali Zaman, lawyer for Mr Afridi, told the court that his client’s whereabouts remained unknown.
He alleged that Mr Afridi was taken away from the Chief Minister’s House on Oct 11 after the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in the prov-ince but his arrest had not been shown on record.
The defence counsel sought more time to be prepared for arguments. Accepting the request, the court adjourned the hearing until Nov 17.
The court re-issued arrest warrants for Mr Afridi and PTI activist Amir Khan Chamkani after their earlier warrants, issued on Oct 28, were returned without being served.
The dysfunctional chief minister has not been seen since the imposition of governor’s rule and emergency in the province on Oct 11. His whereabouts remained unknown on the day the governor’s rule was imposed. A federal minister confirmed a day later that the dysfunctional chief minister and some of his cabinet members were in protective custody. Chamkani has also reportedly been taken into custody.
Last month, the prosecution submitted a supplementary charge sheet, nominating Mr Afridi and four other PTI members as accused in the case. None of them had been named in the original first information report or charge-sheet.
The supplementary charge sheet followed findings by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) regarding video clips purportedly showing the incident and profile pictures of the suspects.
According to a report by investigation officer Deputy Superintendent of Police Khushal Khan, Radio Pakistan Peshawar station director Tufail Ahmad recorded a supplementary statement in light of the forensic findings, nominating the five men as accused.
The forensic examination was ordered on Dec 12, 2025, on an application filed by Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation counsel Shabbir Hussain Gigyani.
The PFSA subsequently concluded that the facial features of the five men matched those of suspects allegedly seen participating in the rioting in the video footage. The Nadra report identified CNIC numbers apparently belonging to the men and described them as probable matches for the profile pictures submitted for examination.
The newly nominated accused have challenged the authenticity of the videos, claiming that the footage does not relate to the incident.The court is currently conducting the trial of 75 accused in the case, including current and former lawmakers.
The FIR was registered at the East Cantonment police station on May 10, 2023, on the complaint of then station house officer Arbab Naeem Haider under various provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.