LAHORE: The arrested leaders and workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been released on the orders of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid said on Saturday.
“Every citizen has the right to protest but the court had imposed ban on protests on the Mall Road in Lahore,” the minister said while talking to media persons on Saturday.
Earlier, police arrested several leaders and activists of the PTI as the party staged a sit-in protest outside the Punjab Assembly in Lahore against alleged rigging in the elections in PP-150 constituency.
However, later the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered police to release all the PTI leaders and workers immediately.
“I have asked arrested PTI workers to be released immediately. They should have behaved and not created unrest in a public place,” the chief minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif wrote on its tweeter account.
The PTI chief Imran Khan strongly condemned Punjab government’s action on peaceful protest and hunger strike camp by his party in Lahore against rigging in elections and demanded immediate release of the party workers and leaders.
“Punjab government unleashed civilian dictatorial measures against PTI’s democratic right to protest against electoral rigging,” Imran Khan said.
The DIG Operations Rao Tahir said that the PTI Workers were arrested on the basis of Section-144 as protest on Mall Road is banned, adding that protests are not allowed due to danger of terrorism .
The PTI arrested leaders included opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, PTI Punjab President Aijaz Chaudhry and Andleeb Abbas and several others.
After arrests, angry the party workers chanted slogans against the provincial government and demanded their quick release.
Chaudhry said that the party would stage stronger protests if the Punjab government stopped it to do so.
The PTI leader Asad Umar said ‘staging protest is our democratic right and the situation will get worse if the arrested workers of PTI were not released’.
