Daily Times

LAHORE: The provincial government has identified more than 300 leaders and activists of opposition political parties who may be arrested to crackdown on any mass agitation in its early stage, Daily Times has learnt.

The identification of these figures is part of government’s efforts to deal with the political situation in view of the ongoing Supreme Court hearings into Panama Papers case. The government’s policy is to sternly deal with the opposition’s movement, the way it ‘handled’ protesters at the sit-ins held by the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) in Islamabad.

The government expects major opposition parties like the PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) to rally reasonable crowds in such a movement. Therefore, it has decided to crush the agitation before it gains momentum by taking into custody major opposition figures.

When asked to corroborate the information, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government did not need any new list of opposition leaders. It already had a list of more than 1,100 people arrested on attempting to lockdown the federal capital during PTI and PAT sit-in.

Sources in the parliamentary opposition parties said that they were proceeding towards launching a movement similar to the one launched by the Pakistan National Alliance (a nine-party alliance against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s second term in office in 1977. Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said arrests were nothing new for his party’s leaders and activists. “We are ready to face any tactics of the government,” he said.

Rasheed said the government would not be successful in breaking the momentum of opposition’s agitation with arrests. “The government’s days are numbered,” he said.

PPP Lahore President Azizur Rehman Chann said the Bhutto family and PPP workers were used to giving sacrifices for the country. “Bhuttos have laid down their lives in the struggle for restoration and strengthening of democracy in Pakistan. Jiyalas have no fear or threat of arrests. We are ready to court arrests,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, July 20^th , 2017.