GUJRAT: The Kotla group of the PML-N has announced staging a sit-in on Sunday (tomorrow), blocking the GT Road, against the registration of what it termed a baseless case against 234 innocent people on the charges of attacking PML-Q leader Chaudhry Musa Elahi over the controversy involving inauguration and renaming of Kotla hospital.

The party workers from across the district have been asked by their local leadership to gather on the GT Road near the Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) offices on January 22 (Sunday) to stage a sit-in and blocking the road for traffic against the “highhandedness” of the local authorities, ex-MPA Shabeer Kotla told Dawn on Friday.

Speaking at a gathering of party’s local leaders and ex-parliamentarians from across the district at his Kotla Dera on Friday, MNA Abid Raza, also divisional president of the PML-N, alleged the police and the district administration had become a party to the Kotla hospital issue by not taking any action against those involved in firing on the public.

He said an application for the registration of a case against Musa Elahi and others had also been filed by the MNA’s brother Shabeer Kotla, but to no avail so far.

Instead, he said, the police had registered a case against the people who had gathered to lodge protest against “illegal” act of renaming the Kotla hospital as Zahoor Elahi Shaheed Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, which was neither an approved scheme, nor any funds were allocated for it by the government.

He said none of the officials concerned of the health department and district administration were present at the hospital’s “inauguration ceremony”, which was a proof that the scheme had no legal or official status.

Mr Kotla said that he had got a go-ahead from the senior party leadership as well as the local ranks before announcing the the sit-in to be staged tomorrow.

He demanded a stern legal action against Gujrat District Police Officer Ghazanfar Shah, Kharian DSP Mian Riaz and Kaskrali Station House Officer Tanveer Abbas Bhatti, for allegedly becoming a tool of the PML-Q leadership, instead of acting as per law.

He announced that the sit-in would not be called off until the quashing of the “fake” case against “innocent people”, registration of a case as per the application filed by his brother and legal action against the three police officers.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2023