Tibbi City Police on Sunday registered a case against nine nominated and 200 to 250 other workers of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) for holding a public meeting on Main Fort Road late on Saturday.
According to City Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Shahzad, APML workers held a public meeting without permission of the Lahore district coordination officer (DCO) and kept Main Fort Road blocked for around an hour. He said that Tibbi City station house officer (SHO) tried his best to convince APML workers not to hold the public gathering without permission of the DCO but they did not listen on which a case has been registered against more than 200 to 250 local leaders and workers of the APML under sections 186, 506,147 and 16 MPO of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The SP said that the case has been registered on complaint of the Tibbi City SHO and around nine local leaders of the APML including Ghulam Mohaiuddin, Hamid alias Hami and Fawad Chaudhry were nominated in the case. According to Dr Shahzad, police did not arrest any APML worker.
According to Tibbi City Police and APML workers, police have sealed the FIR on orders of top policemen.
APML worker Uman Khawaja said that the meeting lasted for more than an hour. He said that former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf, who is also the APML chairman, addressed the participants through video conference. He said that address of Musharraf started at around 8:40pm and continued until 9:15am with two short breaks. Khawaja claimed that earlier, they had planned to organise the meeting in a lawn located at backside of the Baadshahi Mosque but early on Saturday, the Tibbi City Police shattered all arrangements due to which they were forced to continue the proceedings on Main Fort Road.
APML Spokesman Fawad Chaudhry, commenting on the cruel step of the Punjab government for not allowing the APML to stage their convention and registering FIRs against 50 workers, said that registration of FIRs has simply exposed Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s democratic values.
Fawad termed the cruel attitude of the Punjab government as a “slap on democracy”. He said that such tactics could not dampen the morale and courage of the APML leadership and workers, as the Punjab government wants to damage the increasing popularity of Musharraf. He said that Sharif brothers should compete with their party politically instead of utilising the government machinery against them. The APML spokesman said that Musharraf will return to Pakistan on March 23 next year and the Sharif brothers should keep it in mind that thousands of APML workers will welcome their chairman on his return and the APML will transform Lahore into the “Al-Tahrir Square of the Sharif brothers”.
