ISLAMABAD - The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday detained two senior leaders of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for questioning in connection with the ongoing probe into a prohibited funding case against the party. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan himself confirmed that FIA has detained PTI Senator Saifullah Khan Nyazee and the party’s founding member Hamid Zaman from Islamabad and Lahore respectively.
The minister made these remarks while addressing a press conference following a backlash from the PTI leaders as well as lawmakers and denial of the FIA that it had arrested Senator Nyazee. The minister said legal formalities will be fulfilled before arresting the senator if the agency deemed it necessary.
He said that FIA had summoned the lawmaker several times but he never showed up for investigation. “Now FIA has detained him for interrogation and if required, he can be arrested under legal procedures,” he said. PTI leader Dr Iftikhar Durrani was the first one who in a Twitter post said that Senator Nyazee has been picked from the premises of Parliament House. He said that the FIA earlier had raided his house and confiscated some equipment from there. Later, he also announced that a raid had been conducted at the house of PTI leader Aamer Mehmood Kiani. FIA is holding a probe against PTI into the foreign funding case after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a judgment, announced in August, had declared that former prime minister Imran Khan’s party received millions of dollars of prohibited funds from 351 foreign companies and 34 foreign nationals.