ISLAMABAD: The capital police have booked PTI’s members of National Assembly and a former chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan along with 2,000 other people under separate criminal charges after they took out a rally.

The case was registered at the Kohsar police station under section 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon),149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object),153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot if rioting be committed; if not committed),186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions),188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation) in response to a complaint lodged by Station House Officer Shafqat Faiz.

According to the FIR, the SHO along with other police and district administration officials, including a magistrate, was present outside the National Press Club in connection with the PTI’s protest rally. Security arrangements were made to deal with the protest, it added.

At around 4:30pm, the leadership of the PTI, including MNA Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat, MNA Malik Shafqat Awan, Advocate Ali Bukhari, Advocate Shoaib Ahmad Shaheen, PTI Islamabad President Aamir Masood Mughal, former GB chief minister Khalid Khurshid, Shaukat Basra, Ayaz Ameer, Qazi Tanveer, Ilyas Meherban, Malik Azim, Ajmal Sabir, Malik Taimur, Seembia Tahir, Muniza Javed along with 1,800 to 2,000 other people reached the press club in a rally of 100 to 120 vehicles and 300 to 350 motorcycles.

Armed guards accompanied them who kept brandishing weapons and threatened the police, the FIR said, adding they had also two vehicles installed with sound systems from which they were chanting slogans. The participants blocked the road due to which the traffic flow was affected.

The protesters were repeatedly told not to block the road and avoid taking the law into their hands. Besides, they were informed that Section 144 had been imposed in Islamabad. However, the protesters put up resistance and removed security barriers.

The police said directives from senior officers were awaited to initiate further legal action against those nominated in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024