–PML-N workers allegedly thrash a PTI woman worker
LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidate for the by-election of NA-120 Dr Yasmin Rashid, on Friday, demanded an immediate deployment of Pakistan Army and Rangers in the constituency as the incidents of commotion between the political workers of different parties are escalating over the time.
According to details, several ugly episodes of confrontation have been taken place among the political workers, including a firing incident outside the election offices of the PTI and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Islampura.
Situation has become tensed following the incident in which a PTI worker Nida Luqman was allegedly beaten up by the PML-N workers at Mall Road—at a time when Maryam Nawaz was leading a rally in Beadon Road area.
“I was sitting in my car at Mall Road near Shuhada Mosque as the road was blocked with huge containers because of the rally of Maryam Nawaz. Someone grabbed my hair and pulled me out from the car when I was making a video of the rally from my cell phone,” she said.
She claimed that she was thrashed by the goons of the PML-N and her clothes were also torn during the scuffle. They also verbally abused me in front of my two kids who were also extremely scared of the situation, she added.
A delegation of PTI, including its NA-120 candidate Dr Yasmin Rashid, PTI’s campaign in charge Andleeb Abbas along with other workers met SSP (Operations) Athar Ismail to record their complaint and demanding a stern action against the culprits.
An FIR, launched at Qila Gujjar Singh Police Station and available with Pakistan Today, named Abid Mushtaq Chaudhry, the general secretary of Mall Road Traders Association and a PML-N worker, as the culprit.
The FIR stated that she recognised the main culprit through the flexes that were posted at Mall Road to welcome Maryam Nawaz.
It is worth mentioning here that this is not the first incident such type as multiple incidents have been reported from Islampura, Karshina Nagar and Abbot Road since the start the election campaign for the NA-120 by-election.
“We have registered five complaints with the police so far, but our first FIR was launched only yesterday (Wednesday),” Dr Yasmin Rashid told Pakistan Today.
She was of the view that the Election Commission of Pakistan must deploy the army and Rangers immediately in the whole constituency to avert such incidents ahead of the polling day. Nida Luqman is the daughter-in-law of the former president of Pakistan Medical Association, Dr Sarwar Chaudhry. Yasmin Rashid has also served at the post of the president for same association.
