LAHORE: Following the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill, the PTI-led government in Punjab has decided to take action against those responsible for the May 25 incident in which scores of party workers were injured in Lahore following clashes with police, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
Omar Sarfraz Cheema, the former Punjab governor who is also an adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, said on Tuesday that the decision to take action against those involved in the ‘illegal’ arrest of PTI workers had been taken earlier.
“After today’s incident (involving Shahbaz Gill), we have decided to arrest all those involved in the May 25 incident,” Omar Sarfraz Cheema told the media.
When asked whether action would be taken against PML-N leaders including current Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Punjab home minister at the time, Attaullah Tarrar, he said that “all those involved in the unlawful terrorising” of protesters on May 25 would face action.
His statement comes hours after the Islamabad Police arrested PTI leader Shahbaz Gill while he was on his way to Imran Khan’s residence in Bani Gala.
In a statement, the Islamabad Police said it arrested the former SAPM outside Banigala Chowk for “making statements against state institutions and inciting the people to rebellion”.
A case was registered against the PTI leader at the Kohsar Police Station. Besides other charges, clauses relating to inciting people against the state institutions and their heads were added in the FIR, it was reported.
Condemning the arrest, Khan called an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.
Taking to Twitter, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said “this is an abduction, not an arrest. Can such shameful acts take place in any democracy?”
According to him, political workers were being treated as enemies and all this was being done “to make us accept a foreign-backed government of crooks.”
