Imran Khan's key ally and leader of Awami Muslim League Sheikh Rashid arrested in Pak
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistani authorities on Sunday arrested Sheikh Rashid, a key ally of former premier Imran Khan and leader of Awami Muslim League, for his alleged involvement in corruption, said his nephew.
Rashid, 72, and two of his aides were arrested from his residence in Bahria Town of Rawalpindi and shifted to an undisclosed location, his nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq said in a video message.
"I request the top judiciary to take notice of the arrest of a senior politician as he was not wanted in any case," Sheikh Shafiq said, adding that his elder brother and a servant was also arrested by police.
The details of the charges against Rashid have not been released so far.
Rashid, who is the head of AML party, remained a staunch ally of former prime minister Khan and was appointed as interior minister during his government.
In a tweet on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf condemned Rashid's arrest.
"The political victimisation and fascism continues, this time with the arrest of Sheikh Rashid," it said.
Rashid's arrest seems to be part of the crackdown unleashed after the May 9 violence by the PTI workers who torched several state buildings, including the official residence of Corps Commander Lahore.
Earlier this year in June, the AML leader had alleged that the Islamabad police broke into his house and beat up his servants.
He had also claimed that in a second incident, a "force clad in plain clothes" tortured his employees at his Lal Haveli residence in Rawalpindi.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
