Daily Times

Lahore police has registered a case against several top leaders and workers of PML-N for holding a public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan on Sunday in violation of government orders and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the coronavirus, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.

Nearly 40 PML-N leaders including party’s vice president Maryam Nawaz, Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Rana Sanaullah, Ayaz Sadiq, Talal Chaudhry, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Azma Bokhari, Javed Hashmi and 100-124 unidentified stick-wielding persons ‘several of whom were dressed in khaki shalwar kameez’ were nominated in the first information report (FIR) lodged at Lahore’s Lari Adda police station on a complaint of Mohammad Zameer, the security in-charge of the Greater Iqbal Park.

The FIR was registered under Sections 286, 287, 506, 440, 147, 149, 290, 291, 353 and 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as the Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) Act, 2015, Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, and Punjab Infectious Diseases (Prevention and Control) Ordinance, 2020.

In the FIR, complainant Zameer accused the PML-N leadership and workers of holding the rally illegally and breaking the gate and security barriers of the Greater Iqbal Park, causing ‘severe damage’ to the state property, violating coronavirus SOPs issued by the government and unnecessarily using loudspeakers and megaphones. The FIR also accused the organisers of manhandling the security guards of the park and provoking the participants of the rally against the administration.

Meanwhile, the sessions court heard a petition for registration of case against Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai over a hate speech in PDM public meeting in Lahore. Additional Sessions Judge Rizwan Aziz heard the plea of Tanveer Arshad Chaudhry Advocate against Achakzai over his alleged hate speech against the people of Punjab. Tanveer Arshad Advocate pleaded to the court that the PkMAP leader talked with hate against Punjab’s people in the recent public meeting of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in Lahore. He sought the court’s order for registration of a case of hate crime against Achakzai. The judge summoned a report from concerned police station over the matter till December 22 and adjourned the hearing.