Several PTI leaders on police radar

Police ‘compile’ lists of key party members for making arrests

RAWALPINDI:

Following the arrest of former interior minister and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed, other leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf are likely to be arrested.

Sources said that lists of several former MNAs and MPs of PTI belonging to Rawalpindi have been compiled.

They will be arrested on the charge of protesting on various highways of Rawalpindi during the party’s Haqeeqi Azadi march. All PTI leaders have gone into hiding to avoid arrests.

Sources told The Express Tribune that following the assassination attempt on PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Wazirabad during the party’s Azadi March, local PTI leaders held sit-ins and blocked Murree Road, Motorway M2, GT Road, Jhelum Road, Rawal Road, Airport Road, Peshawar Road, Pirwadhai Mor and other highways, disrupting traffic and causing inconvenience to citizens for several days.

Sources said that so far four cases have been registered against PTI leaders in three different police stations in Rawalpindi.

According to the sources, two cases have been registered at Naseerabad police station and one each at Sadiqabad and Mandra police stations.

The sources said that possibly in the next few days, PTI’s former MNAs Aamir Kayani, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sadaqat Abbasi and Mansoor Hayat Khan, former provincial minister Raja Rashid Hafeez, former provincial minister Raja Basharat, former deputy speaker Punjab Assembly Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi, former provincial minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan, Ex-MPA Haji Amjad Mahmood, Ex-MPA Chaudhry Adnan and other party leaders may be arrested on the basis of the registered cases.

According to the sources, a comprehensive plan has been thrashed out for the arrests.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2023.