Pakistan court gives police one week to recover Imran Khan's key ally Sheikh Rashid

A Pakistani court on Monday ordered the police to recover within a week Awami Muslim League chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rashid, a key ally of former premier Imran Khan, after his lawyer claimed that the politician had been arrested.

Rashid, 72, was detained by 'plain clothes men' from his residence in Bahria Town of Rawalpindi on September 17 and shifted to an undisclosed location, his lawyer Sardar Abdul Raziq Khan had said.

Rashid’s nephew Sheikh Shakir and houseworker Sheikh Imran had also been arrested and taken to an “undisclosed location”, according to the lawyer.

Later, police submitted City Police Officer (CPO) Khalid Hamdani’s report to the court, which stated that Rashid was neither in their custody nor was he arrested by the Rawalpindi police.

Last week, Rashid’s lawyer told the court that his client was arrested by the Rawalpindi police. However, police denied having the politician in their custody.

The court then directed the police to locate Rashid’s whereabouts and asked the law enforcement agency to make an all-out effort for his recovery.

On Monday, Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench resumed the proceedings over the plea against the former interior minister's arrest.

The court ordered the police to recover the AML chief within a week and present him before the court, Dawn newspaper reported.

Rashid, who is the head of the AML party, remained a staunch ally of former prime minister Khan and was appointed as interior minister during his government.

In June, the AML leader had alleged that the Islamabad police broke into his house and beat up his servants.