LAHORE, May 29: Police have registered cases against 13 opposition MPAs, including leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly, Qasim Zia, and deputy leader, Rana Sanaullah Khan, and 21 workers of the PPP and the PML-N, who were arrested from outside the Punjab Assembly and other nearby places.

The arrested MPAs and workers were charged with creating a law and order situation, obstructing public order and raising slogans against the government. The legislators were set free at about 7pm. However, the opposition workers were in police custody till the filing of this report.

Qasim Zia, Rana Sanaullah Khan and two other MPAs had courted arrest after a two-hour long hold-up by police outside the Punjab Assembly. The police had put barricades on the four sides of their car to prevent them from entering the assembly premises. Some plainclothes policemen were also seen trying to muffle the exhaust pipe of the MPA’s car in a bid to force them out of the vehicle.

The police arrested the remaining nine opposition MPAs when they tried to enter the Punjab Assembly.

All the MPAs, who were arrested by the police and 14 others who were barred by the speaker on Tuesday from taking part in the current session for hampering the business of the assembly on Monday, belong to the PPP and the PML-N.

Qasim Zia claimed after his release that the police had arrested 17 MPAs. The police, however, insisted they had taken into custody only 13.

The opposition leader said he had not been informed by the police about registration of any case against him or other MPAs. “I am worried about our party workers.”

Lahore Operations and Prevention Police SSP Aftab Cheema defended police action against the MPAs and their party workers: “They are threatening public order. They are blocking roads. That is why we are arresting them.”

He claimed that he did not have any idea whether the MPAs were allowed to enter the assembly building or not. “I am supposed to maintain law and order.”

When asked how could the legislators be set free when they had been charged in a case, Cantonment police SP Dr Usman Anwar said the lawmakers could not be arrested when the assembly was in session.

Keeping in view the previous two days’ experience, the opposition MPAs had evolved a different strategy by assembling themselves in three groups at as many hotels, close to the assembly building.

A heavy police contingent and officials in plainclothes had been deployed in and around the three venues besides a large number of riot police, who had cordoned off the assembly building since early morning. All ways leading to the assembly building had been barricaded.

“Those at the helm of affairs should tell on whose directions all this was being done,” Qasim Zia commented before he left one of the venues for assembly. He said Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi should resign if he had not ordered to keep the opposition lawmakers away from the assembly. “One thing is clear that nobody can stop us from voicing against illegal acts like the LFO.”

Mr Zia, together with seven MPAs, then drove towards the assembly building. His and two other cars carrying the MPAs were intercepted by the police at the hotel’s exit and they were not allowed to leave until their names and number and colour of their cars was aired through wireless messages. So was done by the police at the two other venues. Fifteen workers of their parties, including women, were picked up by the police outside one of the venues when they attempted to march towards the assembly, raising anti-government slogans.

Mr Zia’s car, when it reached after half an hour at the main entrance of the assembly at 11:15am, was encircled by a large number of police. Nine other MPAs walked to the scene.

Negotiations between them and the police ended without any success, and the police soon started bundling the nine MPAs one by one into a police van. Making a victory sign, each of the legislator would chant slogans “Go Musharraf, go” and “No to LFO” while being forcibly pushed into the van by the plainclothes police.

One of the MPAs Jehanzeb Imtiaz Gill fell down twice from the van while resisting his arrest. Their six workers were also driven away by the police when they tried to hold a protest nearby.

From here the hold-up began when Qasim Zia, Rana Sanaullah and two other MPAs refused to get off the car. Instead they tried to accelerate it in a bid to get into the assembly compound.

The police then barricaded the car from all four sides and also parked a police van on its back. The police tried to block the exhaust pipe of the car by inserting pieces of cloth into it, but the driver kept on accelerating it. Auto mechanics and lock masters were called to make any way to get the legislators off the car but to no avail.

Slowly removing the barricade from in front of the car, the police got it into the assembly compound. “We did so as it was disturbing traffic at the main entrance,” the SSP said.

A Punjab minister Ali Raza Gillani approached the SSP and asked him to end the hold-up, but the SSP rang up someone from his phone and gave it to the minister. They both, after the cell-phone conversation, walked inside the assembly building.

The hold-up, however, continued for another one hour and finally the four occupants of the car got off it and courted their arrest amid slogans “No to state oppression,”, “No to Musharraf.”

They were bundled into a police van and taken to the Qila Gujjar Singh police headquarters where a case was registered against them.