Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday asked on what grounds Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members were being detailed and the city of Lahore was laid to siege.

The PPP chairman said the arrest of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was understandable, however, that of party members was unintelligible.

Bilawal also questioned why the city of Lahore was laid to siege when the “right to peaceful protest was fundamental for democracy”.

The arrests coincided with the return of party supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to the country.

Earlier in the day, the Lahore High Court ordered the release of PML-N workers illegally detained by the law enforcement agencies.

According to PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, around 400 workers have so far been detained and arrested from Lahore and Rawalpindi.

On Thursday, Shehbaz had slammed the interim Punjab government for the arrests of workers from Lahore, ahead of party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s return.

The former Punjab chief minister had described the arrests as “naked pre-poll rigging.

It might be mentioned that Nawaz was sentenced to 10 years in prison by an accountability court in Avenfield reference case. He was imposed a fine of 8 million pounds. His daughter Maryam was sentenced to 7 years in prison. She was slapped with a fine of 2 million pounds. Captain (r) Safdar, son-in-law of the former premier was handed one-year jail term.

Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has expressed deep grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of Nawabzada Siraj Raisani among his fellow companions in a terrorist bomb blast in Mastung on Friday.

The PPP chairman said his heart went out to families who had lost their loved ones. “Clarity and ability to create and maintain consensus on countering violent extremism would be the number one priority for any other country facing such consistent autocracies,” he stated in tweet.

Condemning the terror attack in strong words, Bilawal stressed that those injured in the bomb blast should be provided best possible medical facilities to save their lives.

He also strongly condemned the terror attack on the convoy of JUI-F leader Akram Khan Durrani near Bannu and stressed for adequate security to the contesting candidates in the wake of growing terrorist threats.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th 2018.