LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has approached police to get a case registered against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz activists for alleged harassment of women in the PTI’s public meeting on The Mall last Sunday.

PTI MPA Shoaib Siddiqui on Tuesday submitted an application to the Civil Lines police station for legal action against the PML-N activists, who allegedly harassed women participants after the public meeting ended.

The application stated that the PTI had made all arrangements for the public meeting and had established a separate enclosure for women over security concerns, particularly on alleged reports that some ‘anti-social elements’ in the PML-N would attempt to disrupt the meeting.

The petition claimed that the concerns had also been conveyed to the district administration and the police.

Mr Siddiqui said in the application that the meeting went smooth, but soon after it was over some miscreants misbehaved, teased and harassed the women participants who were leaving the venue.

He said video footage aired by various TV channels as well as of the CCTV revealed that women were teased and their dupattas (scarves) were snatched. These videos could be used “to easily identify the miscreants belonging to the PML-N”, he added.

The lawmaker said that party Chairman Imran Khan had lauded meeting organiser Aleem Khan and his team for the arrangements which “baffled the PML-N and it resorted to the planned hooliganism”.

He claimed that the police were informed about the miscreants at the meeting venue but the force did not act against them.

Demanding immediate arrest of the “harassers” and legal action against them, Mr Siddiqui said he would also raise the issue in the Punjab Assembly. In a later development, the police reportedly dispatched the video recordings to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for identifying the harassers with the help of its database. PML-N MPA Azma Bukhari has said that those who misbehaved with women in PTI public meeting will be taken to task and she will herself follow the case.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Ms Bukhari said unfortunately, the incidents of misbehaviour with women in PTI public meetings had increased. She said the treatment meted out to a female TV anchor by the PTI workers at a rally was still fresh in people’s memory.

She lamented that PTI leaders did not even bother to condemn the indecent and alleged that Imran Khan was using women activists as showpieces at PTI rallies.

She said that Amnesty International, Germany and other countries inquired on phone about these incidents. “Is this change the PTI is promising,” she asked?

She said a political leader not only delivered speeches but also trained his workers but Imran Khan had failed on both fronts.

She promised that justice would be dispensed to the aggrieved women.

PML-Q: The women’s wing of PML-Q has demanded immediate arrest of those involved in harassment of women at the recent public meeting of the PTI.

“The PTI and PML-N should stop blaming each other. The issue is the culprits should be arrested whether they belong to the PTI or the N-League,” PML Women’s Wing Lahore Organiser former MPA Amna Ulfat said at a press a press conference here on Tuesday.

Flanked by Zeba Hassan, Tamkeen Aftab, Sumera Nawa and Mussarat Akhtar, Amna said all parties claimed to protect women’s rights but none except the PML-Q had done anything for the rights of women. She said the PML leadership had given a respectable status to women and ensured increased women’s representation in every sector.

“During the tenure of the PML-N women are being maltreated and their rights usurped. The PML-N has never respected women. This is the only party which has forced women in the province to sit in their homes despite comprising half of the population. Shahbaz Sharif is running after projects such as Orange Line train while he is least concerned about protecting the life and property of people,” she said.

She said Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had run the province like a father and every sector including women would feel protected in the province during his tenure.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016