Months after the he went into hiding, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Murad Saeed has been traced in Afghanistan where he was given refuge by a local Afghan Taliban leader, journalists have claimed.
“Breaking news: Murad Saeed has been found,” journalist and columnist Javed Chaudhry wrote in an X post citing Afghan sources, adding that the PTI leader was in Sharan, a city in Paktika province, and had been given shelter by Abdul Khaliq Akhund, a local leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan (TTA).
Journalist Gharidah Farooqi also shared the claim on X, questioning the contrast between the PTI’s politics in Pakistan and the claim regarding a top leader’s whereabouts.
“Slogans of sovereignty in Pakistan, but reports of seeking refuge in Afghanistan!” she wrote, adding that the alleged shelter provided to Saeed by a TTA leader had raised “serious questions about PTI’s relations with the Taliban”.
Referring to the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Farooqi argued that PTI’s alleged leniency towards the group should not be overlooked. She also linked the issue to the federal government’s decision regarding the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in the province.
“An anti-state narrative and a weak stance against terrorism. Whose interests is PTI representing?” she wrote.
While the claims about Saeed’s location have not been independently verified, they come days after Adviser to the Prime Minister (PM) on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said that Saeed was in Afghanistan and was directing the affairs of KP from there.
He also alleged that Saeed had influenced Sohail Afridi’s “selection” as KP chief minister while jailed PTI founder Imran Khan was unaware. “We are being told that the PTI founder did not even know Sohail Afridi.”
Blaming Afridi and Saeed for the collapse of negotiations between the government and PTI, Rana alleged that the two had played a key role in preventing progress.
“The fundamental role in the failure of the negotiations was played by Sohail Afridi and the person sitting behind him, Murad Saeed,” he said days after talks between the government and the PTI failed to address KP’s terror problem and the party’s long march on Islamabad.
Rana also maintained that the government had approached the talks sincerely and met PTI’s demands, but alleged that Afridi and Saeed were unwilling to pursue a resolution through negotiations with political leaders.
