To release or not...: With dharna called off, PTI workers in limbo

Police personnel, containers still in place at exit points of Lahore

MULTAN/ LAHORE: The fate of thousands of PTI activists detained by Punjab police hangs in the balance as the provincial government has yet to issue clear-cut instructions regarding their release or withdrawing blockades on roads leading to Islamabad.

Unlike the Islamabad police that was ordered to retreat after the PTI called off its dharna in view of the apex court’s order, Lahore police remained confused as there were no instructions from the Punjab government.

Cargo containers, tractor trolleys loaded with sand and policemen continued to man all entry and exit points of Lahore awaiting orders for a crackdown against PTI supporters.

The Lahore police alone had arrested more than 500 PTI activists in the past two days after the authorities ordered the police to arrest the political workers leaving Lahore to join the dharna in Islamabad. Police has arrested 110 workers from Model Town Division, 160 from Cantt Division, 44 from Iqbal Town Division, 100 from Saddar, 60 from City Division and 70 from Civil Lines Division.



In southern Punjab, over 2,000 supporters of PTI were also detained under the Maintenance of Public Order rules. However, 51 of them were released from three police stations of Multan Tuesday night after the call-off announced by Imran Khan. In Faisalabad, 40 more workers are still under arrest.

No orders

“We are awaiting instructions from the government on the future course [of action] after the cancellation of PTI’s sit-in in Islamabad,” DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said while talking to The Express Tribune. “We will act as per directions.”

About the fate of hundreds of PTI workers who are behind bars, he said police would withdraw detention orders and follow the legal course of action.

Family members and relatives of the detained workers of PTI kept looking for their beloved visiting one police station after another to determine their whereabouts. Many of them also filed habeaus corpus petitions in courts while many more protested in front of police stations as well.

Maryum Hussain, mother of a PTI worker from Kot Lakhpat, said her son worked as an auto-mechanic and was the sole bread earner of their family since the death of his father three years ago. “I always forbade him from [being involved in] politics but he went to the PTI sit-in [under peer pressure],” she said. “He was arrested by police during a raid at our house on Monday night. Now, at this stage of my life, I’m making efforts for his release, with the help of my neighbours.”

Abdul Razzaq, uncle of Ali Jutt who was arrested from Begum Kot, said his nephew was an undergraduate student at a private university and a diehard supporter of Imran Khan and an activist of PTI’s student wing. Razzaq added every member of the family told Ali to give up his activities and focus on his studies as he was the only son of his parents.

PTI Punjab Information Secretary Samsam Ali Bukhari condemned the arrest of party workers, calling it a brutal act of aggression and demanded their immediate release.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2016.