PTI asserts that an activist was murdered during conflicts between police and protesters outside Zaman Park.
As the caretaker government applies Section 144 in Lahore and arrests PTI party workers, the chairman of the PTI calls off the demonstration.
LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced on Wednesday that a party member had been killed after clashes with the police in Lahore. Section 144 had been put into place by the government to forbid public gatherings before a PTI rally in the provincial capital.
PTI Leader Imran Khan accused the provincial police in a tweet of cruelty and murdering party member Ali Bilal during clashes near his Zaman Park home.
The former prime minister wrote in a tweet that Ali Bilal was killed by the Punjab police despite being unarmed.
“This violence towards unarmed PTI employees who were traveling to an election rally is reprehensible. Murderous criminals are in control of Pakistan. We’ll bring murder charges against the IG, CCPO, and others “Added he.
Farrukh Habib, Azhar Mashwani, and Mussarat Cheema, leaders of the PTI, reaffirmed the allegations of violence and brutality committed by the Punjab police against party supporters who came to the protest.
“The savagery of the fascist administration has gone beyond all bounds. Police abuse and violence led to the martyrdom of an elderly PTI employee named Ali Bilal. The blood of [political] workers has begun to flow under the imported regime, “In a tweet, Farrukh Habib stated.
The PTI leaders said that the police had mistreated their supporters who had gathered to demonstrate in the provincial capital. The party also asserted that its “peaceful” employees had been detained in Lahore shortly after news broke that the provincial capital had been declared in violation of Section 144, which forbids public meetings.
Imran Khan, the chairman of the PTI, abruptly canceled the gathering, claiming that the caretaker administration had targeted PTI supporters not for the sake of peace and order but rather to prevent elections in Punjab province.
Imran urged party members to “return home quietly” in a video speech as the government encouraged protesters to “resort to anarchy, but we will not let them succeed”.
The Punjab caretaker administration announced earlier in the day that it had banned all assemblies, meetings, and demonstrations due to “severe security threats” and concerns over “disruption of traffic,” among other things.
It should be mentioned that the PTI has a gathering planned for today in the provincial capital as part of a power display.
Additionally, the Lahore High Court (LHC) decided that the local government was responsible for safeguarding the safety of the rally’s participants, therefore Aurat March was also scheduled to occur today close to Faletti’s hotel.
Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI and a former prime minister, questioned what legal provision the caretaker administration of Punjab used to enforce the ban, noting that there are “just 55 days [remain]” before elections can be held in the province following the dissolution of the provincial assembly.
The prohibition, according to Imran, was in “brazen defiance of the SC [Supreme Court]”.
President Arif Alvi was instructed to declare the date of the Punjab Assembly election last week. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governor was instructed to determine the provincial assembly election date after consulting with the Pakistani Election Commission (ECP).
