Staff Correspondent
BOONI: Police in Upper Chitral have arrested six Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers, including the party’s district general secretary, under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance and shifted them to jail.
Those arrested from Booni Chowk include PTI Upper Chitral General Secretary Alauddin Urfi, Vice President Irshad Ahmed, Suriya Bibi’s focal person Afgan Raza, Inayat Ali, Abdul Manzar and Ashiq Khanzada.
According to party sources, cases had been registered against the individuals under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 3 of the MPO following the imposition of Governor’s Rule. Police had also been conducting raids to arrest them.
The six individuals had approached the court of the Sessions Judge for pre-arrest bail in the Section 188 cases. The court granted them interim bail for two days and scheduled their applications for a regular hearing.
However, as bail in cases registered under Section 3 of the MPO falls within the jurisdiction of the High Court, police arrested them under the preventive detention provision and transferred them to jail.
Two days earlier, PTI Upper Chitral Senior Vice President Syed Habibullah Shah, a resident of Mastuj and former spokesperson to the Deputy Speaker, was also arrested under the same provisions and sent to jail.
Human rights defenders have always condemned the government for using the MPO ordinance against its opponents. The arrest of those associated with PTI even though no cases were registered against them is a violation of political and human rights.
It may be mentioned here that since the imposition of the governor’s rule, Suriya Bibi, PTI’s elected MPA from Upper Chitral and the deputy speaker of Khyber Pakthunkhwa Assembly, has gone underground.
Related:
When courts are hearing bail applications, preventive detention should not become a shortcut to bypass due process. If democracy allows elections but not peaceful political activity, then what exactly is left of democratic freedom? The law must protect citizens’ rights, regardless of their political affiliation.