500 PTI workers booked in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD:

Police said on Saturday that a case had been registered against 500 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) activists under maintenance of public order (MPO) law and for flouting the Amplifier Act.

Peoples Colony station house officer (SHO) said the administration had banned public assembly of more than three people but hundreds of PTI activists had violated the ban and staged a protest demonstration at Jaranwala Road. He said those addressing the sit-in had tried to instigate public against the government. The SHO said a case had been registered against them under the MPO law and the Amplifier Act. Those named in the report were former union council nazim Abdullah Dummar, former Iqbal Town nazim Haider Cheema, Mian Naeem, Shahzad Moazzam, Shahid Javaid and Ali Gohar. He said police were conducting raids to apprehend the people.

Insaf Students’ Federation president Farrukh Habib condemned the police action. He said the PTI had launched the Azadi March against the tyranny. Habib said the government had been trying to gag the PTI.

He said such actions would prove futile and the protest demonstrations would continue till the government was toppled. Habib also said the civil disobedience campaign would continue till the parliament was dissolved. He said PTI lawmakers had submitted their resignations.  Habib said the public would not let Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif flee from the country. He said they would be held accountable for squandering public money.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2014.