ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday sent former Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid to jail on judicial remand in a case registered against him and others in connection with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) November 26 protest.
Police produced Khurshid before ATC Judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain to seek his physical remand in the case registered at Aabpara Police Station. He was reportedly taken into custody along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati.
At the outset of the hearing, police requested the court to grant Khurshid’s physical remand to conduct further investigation, stating that Khurshid had been in hiding for a long time.
The court dismissed the police application for physical remand and sent him to jail on judicial remand.
Following his reported detention, Khurshid’s son, Hanifullah, filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court seeking his father’s recovery and the preservation of CCTV footage from the speaker’s house.
In December 2024, an ATC in Gilgit-Baltistan sentenced Khurshid to 34 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs600,000 in a case involving allegations that he had threatened security institutions during a public gathering.
Khurshid was elected to the GB Legislative Assembly from Astore district on a PTI ticket in the 2020 general elections and subsequently became chief minister.
In July 2023, the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court disqualified him from holding public office over allegations that he had obtained a licence from the GB Bar Council using a fraudulent educational degree.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026