Former federal minister and Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad was apprehended in Rawalpindi on Sunday evening.
Ahmad was apprehended by a large contingent of the Punjab police from a private housing society located on the confluence of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. He was arrested along with two others including Sheikh Shakir.
His lawyer, Sardar Abdul Razzaq, confirmed his arrest.
Razzaq said that officers clad in plain clothes had apprehended Ahmad, Sheikh Shakir and their driver.
The lawyer said that Ahmad is only wanted in one case, which was registered in the Kohsar police station in Islamabad for organizing a rally in support of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the aftermath of the May 8 incidents and over the continued detention of former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
He added that, thus far, they have no information about Ahmad's whereabouts.
سابق وفاقی وزیر داخلہ شیخ رشید احمد کی گرفتاری کے حوالے سے سابق ایم این اے شیخ راشد شفیق کا ویڈیو پیغام جاری pic.twitter.com/dVQfhcrV4U
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) September 17, 2023
Ahmad was an ally of the PTI when it was in power after the 2018 general elections. He served as a federal minister on several portfolios, including interior.
The last activity from Ahmad's social media account was to wish his followers on Rabiul Awwal.
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) September 17, 2023
Prior to that, in his typically cryptic style, Ahmad had posted about the elections. "Some decisions are earthly, some decisions are heavenly. It is possible that before the elections, some heavenly decisions are made," the post in Urdu read.
Making a trademark forecast, Ahmad predicted that in the last week of September, the poor will receive bad news about gas. He added that taxes which should have been imposed on the elite were instead imposed on the poor masses.
He continued that the real problem is that the middle class has collapsed. Criticising the caretaker government for increasing the price of essential commodities, including fuel, asked how will people survive? How will they pay for the expensive fuel and the exorbitant electricity bills while still managing to feed themselves. He added that inflation and starvation do not ask which political party do you belong to.
The common man, he said, has reached his limit. As a result, the streets are full of crime, and people are thieving just to get by, which is extremely concerning. When electricity and petrol become expensive, how will the industrial revolution come, he asked.
Ahmad said that the rich can live the life they want but the poor have been pushed into a bottomless pit. What will they earn and what will they be able to spend, how will they afford to raise their kids and send them to school or pay their rent.
He also raised questions whether elections will take place or not, but added that it is irrelevant at the moment as right now the survival of the common man is at stake.
سابق وفاقی وزیر داخلہ شیخ رشید احمد pic.twitter.com/foKl4w02qs
— Sheikh Rashid Ahmed (@ShkhRasheed) September 17, 2023