Javed Hashmi claims police raid house ahead of PTI's convention in Multan

• Javed claims police entered his house by breaking doors.
• He says 20 Punjab Police officials surrounded his residence.
• NA-151 candidate, Meher Bano had to attend workers' convention.

MULTAN: Veteran politician Makhdoom Javed Hashmi claimed police barged into his house and arrested his son-in-law and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed candidate, Makhdoom Shahid Bahar Hashmi, grandson, Qasim Hashmi, and house servants late Wednesday, Geo News reported.

Javed Hashmi said 20 Punjab Police officials surrounded his ‘Makhdoom Rasheed’ residence at 1:00am and “illegally entered without a warrant”, violating the sanctity of the house. The PTI workers’ convention was scheduled to be held at the residence where the raid took place, according to the senior politician.

“My son-in-law Shahid Bahar Hashmi and grandson Qasim Hashmi have been taken into illegal custody,” he wrote on his X account. All employees had been arrested, he added.

He claimed that police entered his house by breaking the doors.

Javed also apprised that PTI candidates and children of incarcerated PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Meher Bano Qureshi and Zain Qureshi, also had to attend the convention.

Despite the raid, a close relative of the senior politician, Makhdoom Zahid Bahar Hashmi said the workers' convention would take place at Hashmi's residence and the candidate for NA-151 constituency Meher Bano would also attend it. 

Javed Hashmi withdraws in PTI’s favour

Javed had on January 22 announced stepping out of the election race and withdrawing in favour of PTI-backed Aamir Dogar, who will contest the February 8 polls from NA-149 constituency.

“I am throwing my political weight behind the Tehreek-e-Insaf and Imran Khan and withdrawing from the elections,” Hashmi, who remained associated with the PTI and its arch-rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The seasoned politician was set to contest the polls from Multan’s constituency as an independent candidate, and his withdrawal might help the PTI, whose candidates are also contesting on different symbols after they were deprived of their iconic ‘bat’ symbol.

Hashmi had won twice from NA-149 in 2008 on the PML-N’s ticket and in 2013 on the PTI ticket. However, after leaving the PTI, he relinquished the seat and in a by-election in 2014, Dogar defeated him. In 2018 as well, he had decided against running in elections.

While he has close ties with the PML-N, Hashmi had said he stood with the incarcerated PTI founder as he and his party were facing testing times. “When Imran Khan was the ‘blue-eyed boy’, I stood by Nawaz Sharif.”

The senior politician had said the cipher case against top PTI leaders — Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi — was baseless. “I know Shah Mahmood Qureshi; he’s not a traitor.”

Qureshi and Khan are behind bars in the cipher case, with the prosecution alleging that the PTI leaders used the secret document for political gains.