Brother of ex-Pak PM Imran Khan’s close aide abducted in Lahore

LAHORE: A brother of the former chief of staff of jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been abducted by unidentified men in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, police said on Thursday.

According to an FIR registered at the Kahna police station, Ghulam Shabbir, elder brother of Shahbaz Gill, former chief of staff and spokesperson of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder, was abducted after he left his house in Lahore’s Khyiaban-e-Amin housing society a few days ago. He was supposed to go to Islamabad.

Shabbir's son Bilal Abdullah suspected that his father might have been picked up by personnel of intelligence agencies.

Earlier this month, two professors, who are brothers of Khan's social media focal person Azhar Mashwani, were picked up allegedly by the intelligence agencies.

Shahbaz Gill has been in the US and is a vocal critic of the powerful Pakistan Army. It is assumed that his brother was abducted to put pressure on Gill to stop propagating against the army.

In a recent post, Khan lambasted the security agencies for hounding his supporters.

“It is unfortunate how policemen and our soldiers are being targeted by terrorists as we witness casualties on a daily basis. But the military intelligence agencies, instead of doing their job of timely intelligence gathering about terrorists' presence & movement, are being illegally used to pressurise and harass Judges adjudicating PTI-related cases (IHC judges, ATC judges); while journalists alongside political workers & social media activists & their relatives are being abducted or "arrested” on fake charges," Khan said on his X account.

The 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said the latest letter by ATC Judge Sargodha to the Lahore High Court chief justice and before that, the letter by six judges of the Islamabad High Court to the chief justice of Pakistan has revealed the massive level of involvement of ISI in judicial matters and to date this continues with impunity.

"By abducting family members of Overseas PTI supporters, leaders & of our social media team, the colonial tactic of collective punishment is being used by our military intel agencies. All this is causing increasing uncertainty and leading the country into chaos. The absence of rule of law is directly affecting the economy and discouraging investment. Pakistan needs investment and Overseas Pakistanis are our biggest assets for this, but they are being treated as enemies," he said.

Khan has requested the superior judiciary to look into the matter and in light of the observations of the chief justice of the Lahore High Court and judges of Islamabad High Court, save the justice system by curtailing the ISI and the military establishment's intrusion into the judicial system.

Khan, the 71-year-old PTI party founder, has been in jail since August last year after being convicted in some of the nearly 200 cases slapped on him since his ouster in April 2022.

In May 2022, the former cricketer-turned-politician launched a march toward Islamabad from Lahore to topple the coalition government of Shehbaz Sharif that assumed power after he was ousted as the premier following a vote of no confidence.