{"id":18957,"date":"2026-11-04T11:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T11:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=18957"},"modified":"2026-11-04T11:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T11:46:31","slug":"phc-issues-written-order-referring-sohail-afridi-recovery-case-to-chief-justice-for-larger-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=18957","title":{"rendered":"PHC issues written order referring Sohail Afridi recovery case to chief justice for larger bench"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued a written order referring petitions seeking the recovery<\/a> of deposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Sohail Afridi and former provincial assembly speaker Babar Saleem Swati to the chief justice for the formation of a larger bench, declaring the matter one of public importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A two-member bench comprising Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Faheem Wali issued the order after expressing dissatisfaction with the provincial government\u2019s failure to submit a response despite being given 10 days to comply with the court\u2019s earlier directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The written order noted that the advocate general had not filed the required reply. The government\u2019s law officer told the court that reports had been sought from the deputy commissioner, police, law enforcement agencies and other departments, delaying the submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advocate general said he had received the relevant report on Tuesday and needed three more days to prepare a response. The bench, however, observed that the government had already been given sufficient time and had failed to comply with its order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petition alleges former chief minister\u2019s abduction<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The case stems from a constitutional petition filed on October 13 by Muhammad Aamir, the brother of Sohail Afridi, seeking the former chief minister\u2019s recovery and production before the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition alleged that armed and masked men had taken Afridi from the Chief Minister\u2019s House on October 11, following the imposition of emergency and governor\u2019s rule in KP by the federal government. It sought his recovery, an investigation into the alleged incident and directions for the preservation of CCTV footage and other relevant records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports had also emerged about the alleged arrests of Afridi and then provincial assembly speaker Babar Saleem Swati. The petitioner\u2019s counsel, Advocate Bashir Wazir, told the court that the governor and other officials had acknowledged in media statements that Afridi was in protective custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged the court to direct the inspector general of police to produce Afridi before it, arguing that the high court could exercise its constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 to order the production of the former chief minister and the speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counsel raises questions over arrest of lawmakers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

During the hearing, Wazir argued that a member of the provincial assembly could not be arrested without the speaker\u2019s permission. He also maintained that the speaker could not be arrested and would remain in office until a successor was elected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The counsel referred to provincial legislation that, according to his arguments, restricted the arrest of an assembly member in the circumstances described in the petition. These submissions were recorded in the court order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Arshad Ali questioned the advocate general over the non-implementation of the court\u2019s earlier direction, observing that the chief minister was missing and that the Home Department should have information about his whereabouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advocate general, meanwhile, argued that hundreds of cases had previously been filed under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) without the government being required to submit a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bench expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation, noting that the government had been directed to file its reply within 10 days. It had earlier warned that the matter could be referred to a larger bench if the government continued to delay its response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related cases and political developments<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The recovery petitions come amid a series of legal and political developments involving Afridi and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders. Earlier, an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar issued arrest warrants for Afridi, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Kamran Bangash and Irfan Saleem in connection with the May 9, 2023, Radio Pakistan attack case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PTI has also reaffirmed its support for Afridi as its candidate for the KP chief minister\u2019s office, ruling out an alternative nomination and maintaining that only party founder Imran Khan could decide on his replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its written order, the high court referred the main recovery petition and related applications to the chief justice for the constitution of a larger bench. The order does not specify when the larger bench will be formed or when the petitions will next be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued a written order referring petitions seeking the recovery of deposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Sohail Afridi..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4.png",800,947,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4-253x300.png",253,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4-768x909.png",768,909,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4.png",800,947,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4.png",800,947,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Pak-Souch-Social-Media-Poster-4.png",800,947,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18959,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18957\/revisions\/18959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}