KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari questioned that on what grounds Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members were being arrested and the city of Lahore was under “siege.”
The PPP chairman said the arrest of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was on legal grounds, however, that of party members was beyond understanding.
“Understand the legal grounds for arrest of MNS after NAB conviction but on what grounds are workers and leaders being arrested?” he said on Twitter.
Bilawal also questioned why the city of Lahore was under “siege” when the “right to peaceful protest is fundamental for democracy.”
The arrests coincided with the return of party supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to the country.
The father-daughter duo arrived in Lahore on Friday night and following their arrest were taken to Islamabad.
Earlier in the day, the Lahore High Court ordered the release of PML-N workers illegally detained by the law enforcement agencies.
According to PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, around 400 workers have so far been detained and arrested from Lahore and Rawalpindi.
On Thursday, Shehbaz had slammed the interim Punjab government for the arrests of workers from Lahore, ahead of party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s return.
The former Punjab chief minister had described the arrests as “naked pre-poll rigging.”
