Islamabad: In a significant move, top leaders of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were arrested by Pakistani police on Monday from outside Parliament House following a National Assembly session for allegedly violating a public gathering law during the party's power show on Sunday, according to local reports. The PTI said at least a dozen of its leaders have been arrested in raids since last night, Dawn reported.
PTI leaders Gohar Ali Khan, Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, and Advocate Shoaib Shaheen were arrested by Islamabad police, said police spokesperson Jawad Taqi. Referring to Marwat's arrest, the PTI decried it as a "direct attack on democracy" and said the ruling government should be "completely ashamed" of this step.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has reached Peshawar from Islamabad, said PTI leaders on Tuesday, after he was reportedly incommunicado for several hours following the raids. After a contentious address at the Sunday rally, which prompted condemnations from PML-N leaders and the media community, Gandapaur was said to be holed up in Islamabad’s KP House.
Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the Opposition, condemned the arrests and alleged that Islamabad Police had formed teams to arrest him. “This fascist regime and its backers have gone completely mad,” Omar wrote in a post on X. "Our only crime is that we have dared to challenge the status quo and raised our voice for our beloved leader, PM Imran Khan sahib."
Why did the police conduct raids against PTI's top brass?
The PTI’s media cell said that so far 12 party leaders, including Gohar Khan and Chief Whip of National Assembly Amir Dogar, had been arrested along with key ally Sunni Ittehad Council’s chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza. Gohar and Marwat were taken into custody separately outside the Parliament House by a large number of personnel as police bundled them into vehicles as soon as they exited the assembly building after Monday’s session.
Marwat was arrested for violating regulations devised under a new law —Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, sources told Geo News, adding that the PTI lawmaker was accused of clashing with police personnel a day earlier. The police were expected to launch a crackdown against the former ruling party’s Punjab leaders who attended the power show on Sunday, according to these sources.
Police filed cases against several leaders of the Imran Khan-founded party under the newly-enacted Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, at Noon Village and Sangjani police stations. The FIR said PTI workers attacked police teams with batons and pelted them with stones while officers tried to stop them from violating the route of their Islamabad rally.
According to the FIR, police deployed for security resorted to tear gas shelling and batons charging the party activists, and arresting 17 of them from the scene. They also said PTI supporters insisted on using the route set for the general public and hence clashed with law enforcement.
What is the Peaceful Assembly Bill in Pakistan?
The Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, had sailed through the Senate and the National Assembly amid the opposition protests a few days ahead of the Imran-founded party's Islamabad rally which increased the powers of the federal capital's local authorities to control public gatherings. President Asif Ali Zardari signed the bill into law just a day before the PTI’s rally.
The new bill empowers the district magistrate to regulate and ban public assemblies in the federal capital, proposing a punishment of up to three years or/and an unspecified fine to the members of an "unlawful assembly". It also proposed that repeat offenders will be liable to imprisonment for a term that may extend to 10 years.
The bill says the ban on assembly under the proposed law would remain in force for the duration specified by the district magistrate, which may be extended if the conditions necessitating the ban persist. At least 28 other leaders of the PTI have been charged and wanted in the cases pertaining to this legislation.
It is pertinent to note that the Islamabad administration had granted a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the rally, with the condition that it conclude by 7 pm local time. However, as the deadline passed, authorities ordered police to take action against the remaining participants. The situation quickly escalated as PTI supporters began throwing stones at law enforcement officers, injuring several, including Senior Superintendent of Police Shoaib Khan.
ALSO READ | Pakistan: Chaos erupts as Imran Khan’s supporters clash with police during Islamabad rally
ALSO READ | Afghanistan attacks Pakistani checkpost border, 8 Talibani soldiers including key commanders killed
