Details of the charges filed against Fawad Chaudhry emerge.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Police detained Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry from his Lahore apartment in the early hours of Wednesday.

His detention enraged PTI leaders, notably Hammad Azhar and Farrukh Habib, who threatened to initiate nationwide rallies if Mr Chaudhry’s whereabouts was not revealed, claiming that facts regarding his arrest were not being given.

It has now been revealed that the former information minister was detained in a complaint lodged by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Umar Hameed at the capital city’s Kohsar police station.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), the PTI leader has been charged under sections 153A, 506 and 124 A of the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly threatening the ECP and its members in a televised interview on Tuesday.

The FIR includes an extract from the former MNA’s testimony in which he claims that the election commission has turned into a “Munshi” since the election commissioner signed the documents like a clerk after they were sent to him by the government.

Mr Chaudhry said that anyone who would do injustice against the PTI will be pursued till they are punished. He said that people should track down the elements who are fooling the public and bring them to their homes. Expressing misgivings about the recruitment of certain employees in ECP Punjab before of elections, he stated if these appointments were not taken back, “we warn that the electoral commission and its members would have to refund”.

According to the complaint, Fawad Chaudhry threatened the chief election commissioner, members of the ECP, and their families in his address, which he portrayed as an effort to stymie the electoral process.

“The statement has created a permanent danger for ECP members and their families,” he added, adding that the PTI leader tried to create a schism between the government and the ECP. Influencing the election process by threatening constitutional institutions is a severe crime, he said, adding that such utterances might cause anarchy in the nation.

According to the FIR, Fawad threatened the Election Commission, its members, and their families in his speech outside Imran Khan’s house in Lahore.

Those who join the caretaker administration, according to Fawad, would be pursued until they are punished. He has said that those in government will be pursued to their homes.

Meanwhile, PTI leaders have voiced alarm over Fawad Chaudhry’s detention and have declared that they would file a complaint with the court.

Earlier, in the early hours of Wednesday, hundreds of PTI workers gathered outside PTI head Imran Khan’s house in Zaman Park, Lahore, to safeguard their leader from arrest by the Punjab police.