Imran Khan's key aide Ali Amin Gandapur mysteriously reappears in assembly session

After an inexplicable disappearance of 24 hours, Chief Minister of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhntunkhwa (KP) Ali Amin Gandapur showed up during a provincial assembly session on Sunday in a surprising twist.

The KP assembly was convened over Gandapur's disappearance and the events over the preceding Saturday.

Earlier, the assembly had passed a unanimous resolution requesting that Gandapur be presented within 24 hours.

The KP assembly session was supposed to begin at 2PM, but began at 5PM instead amid the slogans of PTI workers demanding Gandapur's release.

"I crossed twelve districts when I left Islamabad and heard about this session. I want to thank you," said CM Gandapur in an emotional speech to the assembly. "I had no money and only two people accompanied me."

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Where was Ali Amin Gandapur?

"I was at the KP House the entire night, and the Islamabad police conducted four raids but failed to locate me," said Gandapur.

Nukta cannot confirm whether Gandapur was indeed in KP House the entire night and how he left for KP.

KP House is one among other provincial rest houses in the capital - such as Sindh House, Punjab House, and Gilgit Baltistan House - that are used by provincial officials when visiting Islamabad.

Speaking to the assembly, CM Gandapur spoke at length about the raid on KP House on Saturday.

He said that after two exhausting days of protests and facing tear gas shelling, he and his team went to KP House to rest and have tea.

"I thought we'd head to meet Imran Khan afterward to receive further instructions," he said.

Not long after he arrived, the Inspector General (IG) of Islamabad Police, along with Rangers, came to arrest him without providing any information about a first information report or charges against him.

Talking about his arrest, he said, "How dare the IG of Islamabad lay a hand on the KP government? IG sahib, don't stoop so low just to keep your position," said Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

"The IG Islamabad abused me in KP House, took away official vehicles, weapons, and guards. Who does this IG think he is? KP House is the property of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This is an attack on our province."

"He broke the windows of my car, took my weapons, and seized my belongings, I forgave all that. But what he did by breaking the windows of the KP House, that is unforgivable. He will have to apologize for it and fix the damage," said Ali Amin Gandapur.Ali

Govt denies, PTI claims CM's arrest

Earlier, in a press conference held on Sunday after the funeral prayers of a policeman who allegedly died due to injuries inflicted by protesters, Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that Gandapur was not in the custody of any institution of the country.

He further said that during a raid on KP House, the chief minister had “escaped” through the front door. "We have evidence of CM KP fleeing during the raid," Naqvi added.

However, Gandapur's party - the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) - condemned Gandapur's disappearance, labeling it as a "false flag operation", demanding his immediate recovery and release.

In a statement, PTI's central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram had said, "The enforced disappearance of the province's elected Chief Minister is highly shameful, provocative, dictatorial, and disastrous for the federation of Pakistan."

Gandapur does a hat-trick

Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur is a key aide of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and was leading the ex-premier's call for party workers to stage a protest at D-Chowk, situated in the Red Zone.

PTI is demanding Khan’s release from prison and has warned the government against passing its proposed constitutional amendments and legal reforms.

This is the third time Gandapur has failed to capitalize on protest calls - the first time in Lahore on September 21 and the second time in Rawalpindi on September 28.

Aware of his inability to rally protesters at the protest sites, CM Gandapur explained that he faced multiple roadblocks, which delayed his arrival.

"I have evidence that I was [in the outskirts of Lahore] at 5:15 PM but was stopped at seven different points along the way", he told KP assembly on Sunday.

Official KP government equipment used during the rallies

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has formed a commission of the police, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to find out whether official equipment had been used by the KP CM during his march towards Islamabad.

According to an official notification, this includes:

• Number of govt. vehicles and officials in the rally.
• Who ordered the use of govt. resources from KP, and who lawfully sanctioned the use of KP govt. resources.
• Fix responsibility on KP bureaucrats who authorised the action.