LAHORE:Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Shahbaz Sharif has decried wholesale arrests of the workers of his a party on the eve of arrival of Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in Lahore.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) sources said Shahbaz Sharif has written a letter to the caretaker Chief Minister Punjab against the arrests of his workers in Rawalpindi and imposition of Section 144 Cr PC in Lahore seeking immediate reversal and redressal of all these steps.
Through Chairman, PML-N Central Media Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, the party has drawn attention of caretaker Chief Minister Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi to the arrest of 200 party workers including a Senator, in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The party stated that they were booked in frivolous cases. The arrests, the party said, has effectively halted the party election campaign in Rawalpindi while giving free hand to the political rivals.
The party has also raised the question of imposing Section 144 Cr PC in Lahore before the arrival of the PML-N Quaid Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif on July 13 (Friday) from London.
The Section 144 will disallow gathering of more than five persons at a place. “Such draconian measures are contrary to the spirit of democracy and free and fair election and are a blatant violation of the Code of Conduct of the Election Commission which your government in the Punjab is bound to follow,” the party added through the letter.
The party strongly condemned the said actions and urged the Chief Minister “to immediately reverse and redress these wrongs, otherwise, the PML-N will be forced to presume that the Punjab caretaker administration is complicit in what amounts to pre-polls rigging and a wilful attempt to prevent PML-N from exercising its inalienable right of legitimate political activity at the height of election campaign, as well as playing political favourites in the election campaign.”