ISLAMABAD — A day after his arrest in a fresh crackdown launched against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for ‘violating’ regulations devised under a new law — Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, the police on Tuesday released party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan from their custody.
In a statement, the police said the PTI chief had been discharged from a case registered in Sangjani police station.
Speaking to journalists after being released from police custody, Barrister Gohar strongly condemned the police actions within the Parliament House premises, saying men with covered faces stormed the parliament and arrested at least 10 of party’s lawmakers.
“This time, a CCTV footage [of the arrests] will be made public,” the PTI chief said, calling September 9 “a black day for Pakistan”.
Furthermore, he said they believe the arrests were an attack on parliament, urging the National Assembly (NA) speaker to investigate the matter.
“Our leaders forgave all the hardships they faced for the sake of the country, people, and democracy,” he said, adding: “We stayed in parliament so we could play our role.”
He also questioned whether it was a crime to prolong a rally beyond its designated timeframe.
The police, a day earlier, arrested a number of party leaders in several cases, including the reported attack on police at Chongi No 26 — which turned into a battleground as PTI workers and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) clashed after the formers deviated routes leading to Sangjani, venue of public gathering.
Other party leaders who have been arrested include PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Sher Afzal Marwat, Zain Qureshi, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Naseem-ur-Rehman, and Zubair Khan.
The police have filed cases against several leaders of the Imran-founded party under the newly-enacted law, at the Noon Village and Sangjani police stations.
The first information report (FIR) stated that charged PTI workers attacked police teams with batons and pelted them with stones when officers tried to stop them from violating the Islamabad rally’s route. — (Geo News)