Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has alleged that the Punjab government misused a video to falsely link incarcerated former Prime Minister’s nephew, Shahrez Khan, to the May 9, 2023 riots.

 

 

According to PTI, the clip, aired on PTV News and shared on its X account, does not show the attack on the Lahore corps commander’s residence. The party claims that it is actually from a party event in Kahna on September 21, 2024, featuring Shahrez with his mother Aleema Khan and leaders Khadija Shah and Shayan Bashir.

 

 

PTI leader Shayan Bashir said the party had official permission for the Kahna event and that Shahrez was only driving his mother there because no driver was available. He added that police had restricted vehicle access, forcing participants to walk. Bashir also confirmed Shahrez’s arrest after meeting him at a Lahore Cantt police station.

 

Sources privy to inside information also confirmed to The Current that Shahrez had only walked his mother to the jalsa venue, retierating that he had no political affiliations.

 

"How does walking his mother make him political? Shahrez has never been interested, or even wants to be, in politics but can a son not walk his mother to where she needs to go?" they questioned.

 

On August 21, officers in plainclothes reportedly picked up Shahrez from Aleema Khan’s Canal Road home while he was preparing to leave for an athletics championship. The next day, his younger brother Shershah was detained outside the house. Both remain in police custody.

 

Earlier, Lahore police stated that Shahrez had been arrested in connection with the May 9 riots, claiming his name was added to the Jinnah House case in September 2023 through supplementary statements. PTI’s Secretary General Salman Akram Raja rejected the claim, saying Shahrez was not involved in politics. He alleged that men without warrants forcibly entered the house and took him away.

 

 

Aleema Khan’s lawyer, Rana Mudassir, characterised the arrests as abductions, pointing out that neither brother was implicated in any case at the time of their arrests. He indicated that the legal team intended to seek relief from the Lahore High Court.

 

 

Family sources also exclusively told The Current that Shahrez was not even in Lahore on the day of the May 9 riots.