ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sent former Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister Khalid Khurshid Khan to jail on 14-day judicial remand on Saturday in a case linked to the November 26, 2024 protest.
Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain rejected police’s request to keep Khurshid in physical custody for 30 days for investigation.
Islamabad police produced him before the court after formally recording his arrest in the case registered at Aabpara police station. Khurshid heads the Gilgit-Baltistan chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
He appeared in court after his family tried to establish his whereabouts following his reported detention in Peshawar. PTI’s official social media account identified him among those taken into custody from the Speaker House on October 11.
The party maintained that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and several others were detained alongside him.
Khurshid’s son, Hanifullah, later petitioned the Peshawar High Court to recover his father. He requested that the security camera footage from the Speaker House be preserved.
Respondents named in the petition included the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of police, the capital city police officer and other authorities.
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Hanifullah alleged that unidentified individuals had taken his father from the building. He accused police of reluctance to register a case over the incident.
Separately, a Gilgit-Baltistan anti-terrorism court sentenced Khurshid to 34 years in prison and fined him Rs600,000 on December 31, 2024, in a case concerning threats against security institutions.
He won the 2020 election to the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly from Astore district on a PTI ticket and later became chief minister.
On July 4, 2023, the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court disqualified him in a degree-related case involving his legal practice licence. That ruling ended his tenure. His lawyer told Dawn after that ruling that he intended to appeal
