Raids on PTI leaders houses, harassment of women members condemned

Imran termed PML-N action 'fascist'; Fawad says 400, including women, taken into custody in 1,100 raids

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI:

In the context of the PTI’s upcoming long march on May 25, the Supreme Court Bar Association, journalists and rights activists have demanded that the government should refrain from taking “illegal” steps and allow everyone to profess their fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, SCBA President Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon and Secretary Waseem Mumtaz Malik stated that the government must not hinder the activities of any political party or stop them from exercising their fundamental right to protest.

They added that the raids being conducted at the residence of any political worker or citizen were totally unwarranted, against the law and the Constitution.  They particularly condemned the raids on the residences of lawyers followed by their arrests.

Read Constable killed during raid at PTI leader's home in Model Town

They also noted with concern that former aide to ex-PM Babar Awan and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, both senior lawyers, have been deprived from performing their professional obligations amid the ongoing turmoil.

Pakistan Bar Council Executive Committee Chairman Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti and Vice Chairman Hafeez-ur-Rehman Chaudhry, in a press release, said every person had the fundamental right to protest and participate in any political activity in the country.

“Police raids being conducted on the residence of political workers/citizens are unwarranted and are against the law and the Constitution,” the press release read.

The PBC office-bearers demanded that the government should refrain from taking such steps which were against law and the Constitution.

Karachi-based lawyer Jibran Nasir shared the video of Justice (retd) Nasira Iqbal, mother of PTI leader Walid Iqbal. In the video, the daughter-in-law of Allama Iqbal shared the harassment her staffers had to put up with at the hands of police.  "Imagine what ordinary Pakistanis go through at hands of law enforcement agencies,” Jibran wrote in the tweet.

He said the PML-N was adopting the "same tyrannical ways" it had accused the PTI of.

PPP leader Nafisa Shah also condemned the police action against the members of the PTI. She differed from the "anti-democratic approach" of the government to deal with the PTI protest.

Journalist Mazhar Abbas also issued a condemnation of the raids, saying they would not be a good idea for the PML-N led government.

Rights activist Ammar Ali Jan, who faced sedition cases during the PTI government, said the pre-emptive arrests were a shameful part of the colonial legacy. He said the protests should be allowed within the ambit of law. “Those who violate the law should be brought to justice,” he added.

Ambreen Qureshi, chairperson of the National Women Lawyers Society, tweeted that these illegal arrests of senior PTI members would only lead to making the party more popular and stronger.

“Again, wrong act and will backfire strongly in elections. Surprised that PPP is still silent. I expected better," she added.

Columnist Dr Muhammad Ali Ehsan said nothing radicalised people more than the unleashing of the law enforcement agencies on the people by a weak and autocratic government.

“Good governments never treat protests with disdain and never see them through the barrel of a gun and batons in hand because protests are people’s effort to fix the system,” he added.

“If protests take the shape of a last-ditch attempt which in our case is a people’s march to Islamabad then the government must know that it has already miscalculated and has minimised the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the issue.”