The Pashtukhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) has accused the law enforcement agencies of raiding the house of its chairman and presidential candidate, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, without any magistrate. The party said that this violated the privacy of Achakzai’s house.
The PkMAP held an emergency press conference at its central secretariat in Quetta on Sunday, where the secretary general of the party, Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal, said that a large number of police had raided the house of Achakzai. He said that the police had arrested a personal security guard of Achakzai, even though he had a licensed firearm, which is legal.
The PkMAP leaders also said that Achakzai had exposed the facts about election rigging in the recent general elections in the National Assembly, and blamed the people behind this manipulation of election results. He said that he was being targeted for that.
Ziaratwal condemned the raid on Achakzai’s home and announced three days of protest. He said that these kinds of repressive tactics would not deter the party. “We will continue to fight for what is right,” he said.
On the other hand, the former provincial minister for information and public relations, Jan Achakzai, also held a press conference where he denied the claims that police had raided the PkMAP’s chief’s house. He said that police had carried out the operation to clear a piece of land in front of Achakzai’s house, which was occupied by local landlords.
He said that Achakzai’s security guard was on duty to protect that occupied piece of land, and when he interfered with the police’s work, he was arrested.
He said that the government would clear any occupation of government or private lands.