SWABI: The police along with sleuths of secret agencies raided the residence of former provincial minister Shahram Khan Tarakai here on Tuesday night, but returned empty-handed as neither he nor his uncle, Mohammad Ali Tarakai, were there, a spokesperson of the family and police sources said on Wednesday.

Shahram and his uncle are wanted to the anti-corruption establishment in illegal appointments case in the education department.

Former adviser to the chief minister on industry, Abdul Karim has already been arrested in the same case. Former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, who is also mentioned in the case, is at large.

Sources in the police department told Dawn that they were under tremendous pressure to arrest Shahram and his uncle as soon as possible, but their location was not known.

Ramazan Chaudhary, the Tarakai family’s spokesperson, said about 50 personnel, some in uniform and some in plainclothes, raided Shahram’s residence without any arrest warrants and asked for giving the house keys, which were provided to them by the servants. “They searched the entire house and went from room to room but got nothing. They handed over the keys back to the servants and went away,” he said.

Reacting to the raid, former provincial minister Atif Khan tweeted: “Look at the number of police/plainclothed men [armed] with machine guns raiding Shahram Tarakai’s house today.”

He further said: “Unfortunately a terrorist attack took place in Khyber [district] on a mosque today. IG KP should check his priorities to use police [either] against terrorists or political workers.”

Meanwhile, a local court dismissed the bail application of former adviser to chief minister on industry Abdul Karim on Wednesday in a corruption case.

Abdul Karim has been lodged in the Swabi judicial lockup since his arrest on July 4.

An additional sessions judge, Abid Zaman, after hearing the arguments from both the parties, dismissed the bail application of Mr Karim and sent him back to the judicial lookup.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2023