PTI Upper Chitral president, others sent to jail
BOONI: PTI Upper Chitral district president and veteran polio player Shahzada Sikendarul Mulk, his cabinet members and scores of party activists have been arrested under section 188 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The section states, “Disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant, if such disobedience causes obstruction, annoyance or injury to persons lawfully employed. If such disobedience causes danger to human life, health or safety, etc. Simple imprisonment for one month, or fine of 200 rupees, or both).”
The party PTI Upper Chitral president activists were accused of gathering outside a court during the hearing of a case registered against a former PTI MNA by violating Section 144. Today they were shifted to the district jail in Denin Lower Chitral.
The PTI president, office-bearers and over a dozen activists were booked after they gathered in a civil court in Booni when former PTI MNA from Malakand Junaid Akbar was brought there by police on Saturday for the hearing of a case registered against him in Booni on the complaint of a man namely Dinar Wali for allegedly defaming state institutions on social media, officials told ChitralToday.
The former MNA has been arrested in a number of cases registered against him under different sections of the PPC and the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in various cities of the province and is being held at a jail in Mardan. After the hearing of the case in Booni, he was taken to the district jail of Lower Chitral and then shifted back to Mardan.
Late in the evening on Saturday, Shahzada Sikendar and others were called to the Booni police station and taken into custody after registration of the FIR against them.
The arrest was condemned by the party as well as social and political circles and termed a targeted victimization of the PTI against all democratic and constitutional norms and values.
They said while other parties and their leaders were holding public gatherings across the country without any hurdles, the PTI workers were being implicated in fake cases in violation of their fundamental political and human rights.
These arrests are part of pre-poll rigging and an attempt to keep the PTI and its leaders away from elections, but like in the past such undemocratic tactics would fail to dent the popularity of the party.
Since the ouster of the PTI government and arrest of its chairman Imran Khan, cases have been registered against party leaders and activists across the country, including Chitral.