PTI leader Seemabia Tahir and 25 other activists were booked by police under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 (MPO), for allegedly blocking Rawalpindi’s Adiala Road and violating Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on Sunday night.
A special court sentenced PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years imprisonment in the Toshakhana-2 case on Saturday. In protest, the PTI announced it would observe a black day on Sunday against the conviction, as per an announcement posted on Imran’s social media account.
Following the protest call, extensive security arrangements had been put in place in Rawalpindi, with over 1,300 police personnel deployed to maintain law and order. Though the day passed peacefully, as not a single activist of PTI appeared on the roads.
Police said that a group of political workers. led by PTI leader Seemabia Tahir and nine others. gathered on Adiala Road on Sunday night at about 9:15pm.
The protesters, nine of whom were identified in the first information report, gathered on Adiala Road near Nasir Bakery and blocked the road, causing traffic congestion and public disorder, despite the enforcement of Section 144, a legal provision prohibiting public gatherings of more than five people.
Constable Rizwan Nazir lodged an FIR with Morgah Police Station, claiming that he was on security duty when some political activists, led by Tahir and carrying PTI flags while riding on motorcycles and in cars, gathered on the road. The protesters, who were chanting slogans, blocked the road and caused traffic congestion.
The FIR stated that the protesters were carrying batons, despite the constable informing them that they were violating Section 144. Instead of responding, they began shouting slogans against the government, incited by the former PTI MPA.
The police registered the FIR on the charges of blocking the road, violating Section 144 and under Section 16 (dissemination of rumours) of the MPO. Those booked were also charged under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a 14-year sentence at the Adiala jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023. Bushra Bibi is also serving a seven-year sentence in £190 million corruption case.
Over the past several weeks, the PTI founder has been denied meetings in prison with his family, prompting his sisters and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi to stage sit-ins near or outside the prison complex. These have sometimes been dispersed by police using water cannons and baton charges.