LAHORE: Police have booked PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and over 150 others, including many stalwarts of the party, for holding a rally at Minar-i-Pakistan on Dec 13 on charges of violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs) related to the Covid-19, damaging public property and breaking the park gate locks.

Besides the PML-N vice president, the FIR, registered by the Lorry Adda police, included former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former foreign minister Khwaja Asif, former National Assembly speaker Ahsan Iqbal, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Rana Sanaullah, Talal Chaudhry, Saad Rafique, Pervaiz Malik, Sheikh Rohail Asghar, Azma Bokhari, Samiullah Khan, Afzal Khokhar, Saif Khokhar, Rana Tanvir, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Javed Hashmi, Rana Mashhood, 25 other party leaders and 100-124 unidentified stick-wielding persons ‘several of whom were dressed in khaki shalwar kameez’ (Ansarul Islam of JUI-F ) on the complaint of Mohammad Zameer, the security in-charge of the Greater Iqbal Park.

The case has been registered under sections 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 506 (criminal intimidation), 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 290 (public nuisance), 291(continuance of nuisance after injunction to discontinue), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function) of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as the Punjab Sound Systems (Regulation) Act, 2015, Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, and Punjab Infectious Diseases (Prevention and Control) Ordinance, 2020.

The FIR said the PML-N leadership and workers held the rally illegally and broke the gate and security barriers of the Greater Iqbal Park, caused damage to the state property and violated the Covid-19 SOPs.

“The organisers of the rally also manhandled the security guards of the park and provoked the participants against the administration,” it said.

On Sunday, the 11-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance held its much-hyped rally at Minar-i-Pakistan with its convener Maulana Fazlur Rehman asking the establishment to move aside from the way of the masses or there could be chaos in the country.

The PTI government had not given permission to the PDM to hold the rally because of the spread of the coronavirus.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb condemned the government for registering the FIR, saying the move showed that the Lahore rally was very successful.

“After failing to propagate against this historic rally, the PTI government registered a fake FIR,” she said.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020