After months of being out of the public eye, a leader of the Imran Khan-led party resurfaced on Sunday with a video address played at a workers’ convention in Peshawar, the capital of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Murad Saeed, a key figure in Pakistan’s main opposition party, broke his long public silence to call on party workers to march on the federal capital to secure former prime minister Imran Khan’s release from Adiala Jail.
Launching a scathing attack on the country’s current leadership, he said, “The real issue in this country today is that on one side, we have thieves who have looted the nation, and on the other side, those who are standing up and fighting for Pakistan.”
He accused the government of trampling on democratic values, violating the constitution, and suppressing basic human rights.
“This regime does not accept our vote,” Saeed claimed. “It has hijacked the parliament and democracy. Now, what are we supposed to do?”
Saeed echoed a quote by former Prime Minister Imran Khan from his 2019 speech at the United Nations General Assembly: “We will fight till the end.”
March to Islamabad
Saeed urged PTI workers to prepare for a march to Islamabad.
"Once the announcement is made, we will march on foot to Islamabad, and it will be the biggest march in the country’s history,” he declared. Although he refrained from revealing the details, Saeed promised that further information would be shared soon.
Additionally, Saeed urged party leaders and workers to help Khan’s sisters who vowed to organize a sit-in outside Adiala Jail if denied a meeting with him.
"On behalf of all National Assembly members, I urge party workers to sit down with Imran Khan’s sisters and develop a strategy for this sit-in,” he said.
Saeed also reaffirmed his loyalty to Khan, calling him the embodiment of an ideology rather than just a political leader.
“They tried to silence him by throwing him in jail and erasing him from the media, but they couldn’t erase him from the hearts of the people.”
Months in hiding
Saeed had been in hiding since authorities began a sweeping crackdown on PTI leaders and supporters over their alleged involvement in the May 9, 2023, riots. The protests broke out after the initial arrest of Imran Khan and led to widespread unrest.
Police launched several attempts to arrest Saeed, including raids on his residences in Islamabad and Swat. He also narrowly escaped a raid on a house in Peshawar’s Defense Housing Authority. Authorities later arrested his relative and members of his personal staff for allegedly helping him evade capture.
Saeed’s legal counsel filed a plea in the Islamabad High Court against the raids. The petition named the federal government, Islamabad’s inspector general of police, and the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as respondents.
The plea demanded that the FIA and other authorities submit inquiry and investigation details to the court. Saeed alleged that, despite being granted bail in “fake cases”, his home was raided while only women were present.
Earlier, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar alleged that Saeed had been hiding in the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar, located in KP.
However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesperson Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif rejected the claim, saying, “If Murad Saeed had been seen during the May 9 protests, the government would have arrested him.”
