Nine booked in Punjab for violating section-144

Country has 189 COVID-19 cases

LAHORE: Police registered nine people over three days in Punjab for violating section-144 placed to limit the spread of coronavirus.

People were booked under various charges like holding marriage ceremonies in halls, screening sports events for a crowd of 100 to 150 people.

According to the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), section -144 empowers district administration to issue orders in the public interest that may place a ban on an activity for a specific period of time.

Such a ban is enforced by the police who register cases under section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code for violations of the ban. Section 188 carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or fine or both.



Earlier, the Punjab Government decided to impose section-144 for three weeks across Punjab as the first case of coronavirus reported in the province emerged in a hospital in Lahore.

The decision was made in an effort to prohibit hoarding and profiteering of hand sanitizers, the opening of all private and public educational institutes, booking of banquet halls and marquees, holding of examinations, religious congregations, public gatherings and sports festivals.

The government also directed all divisional commissioners to allocate one hospital in each division for treatment of coronavirus patients and make arrangements for quarantine and isolation as well.



The federal government sought to quell widespread fears on Monday after a sudden spike in cases of the novel coronavirus in the country with Sindh confirming 150 patients of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the mysterious contagion, in the province and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa reporting its first 15 cases.

Going by the number of cases confirmed by provincial authorities, the nationwide tally of COVID-19 positive cases stood at 189 as of Tuesday with 155 in Sindh, 15 in K-P, 10 in Balochistan, 5 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and two each in Punjab and Islamabad – though State Minister for Health Dr Zafar Mirza gave a lower figure of 94.