32 individuals, including PTI leaders Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, and Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, were indicted by a Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court on Wednesday for allegedly setting fire to the PML-N office in Model Town on May 9.
On May 9, 2023, nationwide protests broke out when PTI founder Imran Khan was taken by the paramilitary Rangers from the Islamabad High Court in connection with a corruption case. Videos of violence and devastation at several locations, including the home of the Lahore Corps Commander and General Headquarters, the army’s chief office in Rawalpindi, were widely shared on social media during the protests.
The leaders and followers of the PTI were then the target of a crackdown. In Lahore alone, almost a dozen complaints were filed against PTI officials and members for assaulting and damaging private and public property in addition to army installations.
During today’s indictment procedures, the accused denied committing the crime. On January 23, the court called the prosecution’s witnesses.
Sanam Javed, a PTI social media activist, also showed up for court and finished her attendance.
Speaking to the media at the event, Rashid criticized the PPP leadership for failing to comply with Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gillani’s production directives for Chaudhry during Tuesday’s Senate session.
Because no one was paying attention to the Senate chairman, she claimed, President Asif Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari “should be ashamed of themselves.”
The sanctity of the upper house of parliament was being violated by the government, she continued.
She claimed, “Hundreds of our workers are being imprisoned, our workers were sentenced by military courts, and the media is being silenced by creating an atmosphere of fear.”
Rashid said that the government was disobeying the Senate chairman’s directive and that her party was being suppressed by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.
She added that “Pakistan cannot move forward until justice is done” and that “we condemn Ejaz Chaudhry’s exclusion from the meeting.”
Due to the charges against her related to the May 9 incidents, Rashid has been incarcerated for over a year and a half.
She was arrested for her claimed involvement in the May 9 riots after being initially apprehended on May 12, 2023, under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.
In a separate development, Gilani had earlier this week ordered Chaudhry, who has been in jail for 18 months, to appear in the Senate session.
The senator, who is detained at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, has previously been the subject of a production order. He was supposed to be presented before the Senate in March of last year, but he was unable to make it.
