An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar has reissued arrest warrants for Sohail Afridi, the suspended chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the case over the attack on the Radio Pakistan building during the unrest of May 2023.
The warrants were issued on Wednesday by Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Wali Mohammad, who also reissued a warrant for Amir Khan Chamkani, a party worker named in the same case. The court adjourned the hearing until 17 November and extended the interim bail of three former provincial ministers — Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Kamran Bangash and Irfan Saleem — until that date. The development was reported by The Express Tribune, Nukta and Dunya News.
The court renewed the warrants after police told it they had been unable to trace Afridi following an earlier arrest order issued on 28 October. Investigators said an arrest team had visited his residence but could not find him, and his lawyer has confirmed that he remains untraceable.
Afridi's whereabouts have been unknown since 11 October, when he was reportedly taken into preventive custody after the federal government imposed emergency and governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution. A federal minister confirmed the following day that Afridi and some members of his cabinet had been detained, while his lawyer has challenged his alleged detention before the Peshawar High Court.
The case concerns the attack on and arson at the historic Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar during violent protests on 9 and 10 May 2023, which followed the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan. The first information report was registered on the complaint of Radio Pakistan, and the case has since grown to more than 80 accused.
Afridi, Jhagra, Bangash, Irfan Saleem and Chamkani were formally named as accused after the public prosecutor submitted the police challan, relying on forensic findings and identity verification reports from the National Database and Registration Authority in Islamabad and the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory, which matched the men to video footage and photographs of the attack.
The hearing on Wednesday was attended by Jhagra, Bangash and Irfan Saleem along with their lawyers, who sought more time to prepare for the proceedings. The court accepted their request, adjourned the case until 17 November and extended their interim bail to the same date.
The renewed warrants add to the legal pressure on a provincial leadership already suspended from office. Since the imposition of governor's rule, the province has been run under federal control, and the courts have become the main arena in which the fate of its elected leadership is being contested.
For Afridi, the immediate question is whether the police can now execute the warrants. His lawyer's petition before the Peshawar High Court argues that he is in fact in custody and is being held unlawfully, a claim that, if accepted, would raise serious questions about the state's account of his disappearance.
The case is one of many arising from the May 9 unrest, which remains the defining legal and political episode of the last three years in Pakistan. The attack on the Radio Pakistan building was among the most prominent incidents of that period, and the trial of the accused — including serving and former lawmakers — has moved slowly through the anti-terrorism courts.
What happens next will depend on the hearing on 17 November and on the Peshawar High Court's handling of the detention petition. If Afridi is produced before the court, the trial can move forward; if he remains untraceable, the warrants will hang over a provincial government that is already suspended and a party that says its leadership is being targeted.
