KARACHI: A female worker of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Monday was arrested by police over charges of pushing a guard and forcibly trying to enter the election commission’s office where she had arrived with a female candidate of the party for filing nomination papers, said Clifton SP, Tauqeer Mohammad Naeem.

The officer said that Asma Rizvi, along with a PTI female candidate, arrived at the election commission office where a token system had been introduced. Instead of waiting for her turn, he said, Ms Rizvi tried to enter forcibly into the office by “pushing the guard” posted there. She also pushed the door of the office with force which resulted in the glass breaking, he said.

The Preedy police detained her and registered a case on complaint of the provincial election commission employee under charges of Sections 427 (mischief), 353 (assault or criminal force used to deter public servant from performing his/her duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation), revealed the SP. He added the female activist was handed over to the women police station for further legal action.

Earlier, Sindh Election Comm­issioner Yousuf Khattak called the police and asked for the arrest of the PTI worker. “Whoever is involved should be arrested and there should be no exemption for anyone,” Khattak told media persons. Later, senior leaders of the party including Imran Ismail and Firdaus Shamim Naqvi arrived at the election commission’s office and held a meeting with the officials to resolve the matter.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2018