LAHORE: The PML-N claimed on Sunday that its more than 60 workers were taken into custody by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) on Saturday night.

According to reports, more than 60 PML-N workers, including chairmen of eight union councils, from NA-120 went missing on Saturday night. The PML-N leaders claimed their workers were picked up so that they could not cast vote and canvass for the party.

The PML-N leadership alleged that some law enforcement agencies officials entered the houses of their local leaders, covered their faces and took them into custody. They said no one of the workers had come back or released by the law enforcement agencies.

Punjab Law Minster Rana Sanaullah, on a news channel, claimed that a number of PML-N workers had gone missing. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also, in his media talk in London, claimed that he had received complaints from NA-120 that some voters went missing from the constituency in the run-up to the by-polls.

Soon after the availability of primary results of the NA-120, Federal Railways Minister Khawja Saad Rafique also raised the issue in the press conference.

However, the PML-N leadership did not answer the journalists’ questions about the law enforcement agencies involvement in picking up its workers.

A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that they also had received reports about the missing workers of the PML-N but the police did not pick any of them. He said Gowalmandi Union Council chairman Nadeem Wyne had gone missing but he turned up in the morning and also cast his vote. He said they had not registered any case against the PML-N workers.

“Some of the PML-N workers were booked in aerial firing cases but they have not been arrested,” he added.

The police officer suspected that the missing persons’ issue might be a political gimmick but added that the police would investigate the matter.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017