LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has formally announced it will hold a protest in Punjab Assembly against arrest of party president Shehbaz Sharif. The party will hold protest outside the National Assembly on October 11.
The protests were announced after the PML-N’s deadline for the federal and provincial government to summon the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly sessions expired.
The decision to organise protests was taken at the PML-N Central Executive Committee meeting presided over by the PML-N ‘quaid’ and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
The CEC warned that if the government did not pay any heed to the PML-N’s demand for calling assembly sessions, the party would take these protests to the streets.
Two days back, a delegation of opposition leaders met with the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser requesting him to call a session. In Punjab several MPAs also wrote to the Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi to summon a session “under Article 54(3) read with Article 127 of the Constitution of Pakistan to discuss the unjustified arrest of the Leader of the Opposition”.
The protest session at the Punjab Assembly has been called by the Opposition Leader Hamza Shehbaz, who is also the son of Shehbaz Sharif. According to the party, the protest outside Punjab Assembly would be led by MPA Rana Muhammad Iqbal.
The PML-N leader and former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq has summoned party MNAs and senators as well as lawmakers of allied parties to assemble at the gate number 1 of Parliament House on October 11 “to discuss the arrest of Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif”.
According to official, the party for now will stick to the option of a token protest in the parliament and Punjab Assembly premises. They said the party does not intend to take these protests to the streets this early, contrary to the warning of the party leaders.
They said the party would consider all other options before deciding about street protests. They said for now it was important to keep focus on by-elections. After the by-elections, the party will chalk out its future course of action.
The PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said this is the first stage of the protests against the unjustified arrest of party president, adding that the party will announce its next move if the government continues to show stubbornness.
“For now the party will continue with such protests on a daily basis starting from Wednesday at Punjab Assembly and Thursday at National Assembly,” she added.
