Police register cases against 198 PML-N workers

SIALKOT: A case has been registered against at least 198 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers for violating a ban on rallies and participating in the homecoming caravan to welcome their party leader Nawaz Sharif at the airport on July 13.

The cases were registered by police teams in Sialkot and Daska.

Sialkot Saddar police booked 175 PML-N workers under Sections 188, 290 and 291 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the basis of a report filed by Sub-Inspector Maqsood Ahmed.

Meanwhile, the Daska Saddar police registered cases against 23 PML-N workers, including Rana Raza, Hashim Butt, and Naeem Butt, the PML-N general secretary in Daska.

According to police, the PML-N workers were booked for their involvement in hate speech against law enforcement agencies. However, no arrest has yet been made in this regard.

On July 16, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Lahore sent PML-N workers on judicial remand, accused for rioting in Lahore on the eve of Nawaz’s arrival.

During the case hearing against 11 PML-N workers, the legal counsel of accused maintained that the arrested PML-N workers neither possessed any instrument of terror nor were they present at the site of unrest.

“My clients were apprehended when some of them were out to purchase grocery and others were heading back to their homes,” the counsel stated.

Separately, as many as 20 FIRs were registered against a total of 400 PML-N leaders and workers for holding a rally in Faisalabad in violation of the ECP’s code of conduct and without permission.

Sharif along with his daughter landed at Allama Iqbal International Airport late Friday night from where they were taken to Islamabad on a private plane before being shifted to Adiala jail in a convoy of security vehicles.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested them as they returned from London via Abu Dhabi to face prison. Judicial magistrate Wasim Ahmed executed the warrants issued by Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir for their arrest.