Police dragnet fails to catch central PTI leaders

As workers get relief from courts, top leadership goes into hiding

RAWALPINDI:

In the week-long crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the police have failed to find any central official and leader of the party.

Sources said courts released 51 PTI activists arrested on charges of violent protests when PTI chief Imran Khan reached the Islamabad Judicial Complex to appear before the court in the Toshakhana case.

According to sources, around 33 workers detained under section 3 of The Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 also got relief from courts.

The sources said former federal minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Fayyazul Hasan Chauhan and other party leaders have obtained interim bail from courts to avoid police action while PTI city president Mian Imran Hayat, information secretary and other officials have gone into hiding.

Meanwhile, police are carrying out raids to arrest the party’s social media activists.

Delving into the details, a senior police officer told The Express Tribune, on the condition of anonymity, that on the arrival of the PTI chief at the Islamabad Judicial Complex from Lahore, the Rawalpindi administration imposed a one-day ban on all political activities by imposing Section 144

Khan was welcomed by the PTI's Rawalpindi leadership on his arrival at the Motorway Toll Plaza and a large number of workers blatantly violated Section 144 by blocking the highway, on which a case was registered against the party’s central leadership in Naseerabad police station for violating Section 144 and other provisions.

On the other hand, the Punjab government had directed that a crackdown should be carried out against the party’s leadership in Rawalpindi, former MNAs and MPAs. The Rawalpindi police with the help of the Special Branch searched the residences and offices of all central leaders and carried out raids at different times.

Former federal minister Aamir Kayani, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Amaar Siddique Khan, Arif Abbasi, and others have obtained pre-arrest bail from local courts, he added.

Sources said 51 PTI activists have been released by the local courts.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2023.