KARACHI: PPP calls PA session on arrest of workers
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, April 26: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians on Tuesday requisitioned the Sindh assembly to agitate the issue of maltreatment of legislators and party activists by Punjab police on and before April 16 and registration of cases against them under Anti-terrorism Act.
Expressing these views at a press conference in the committee room of the Sindh Assembly, leader of the opposition Nisar Khuhro said that 45 members had signed the requisition which he along with some other members of the PPP-P deposited in the assembly secretariat.
Nisar Khuhro said that the inhuman behaviour of Punjab government had sent wrong signals to those who wanted to be in Lahore for greeting Asif Ali Zardari. He said that crackdown on PPP activists and excessive use of police force against political activists and journalists, who had flown in from Dubai with Mr Zardari, exposed the hollow claims of the government democratic dispensation and rights enjoyed by the people at large.
He said that continued imprisonment and denial of judicial process to PPP workers, who were unconstitutionally arrested on the arrival of Asif Ali Zardari at Lahore airport on April 16, was a serious setback.
Mr Khuhro said that thousands of PPP workers were arrested from railway station, highways and bus-stands. He said that holding NIC from Sindh had become a crime and holders of such cards were ruthlessly treated.
People from other provinces trying to reach Lahore by road, were not allowed to enter Punjab, thus sending very dangerous signals.
He said that though the Punjab government had imposed Section-144 in Lahore, people were rounded up in Rahimyar Khan and other places on the way to Lahore. He slammed the government’s alleged double standards and said that when someone wanted to address a public meeting in Kasur, and traffic was obstructed, the Punjab government did not impose Section-144. There was also no ban on MMA’s rally in Lahore a few days ago, he added.
Regarding charges of terrorism against democratic and political forces, he said that this section of the ATA signified that the arrested were all terrorists involved in “sabotage, arson, kidnapping and sectarian killings”. Punishment under this section was death and these were non-bailable offences, he added.
