ISLAMABAD   (   WEB  NEWS   )

The Islamabad police said on Monday they had arrested the chairman and two other members of former prime minister Imran Khan’s party on charges of violating a new law to regulate public gatherings in the Pakistani capital.
The development came a day after Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held a rally in Islamabad to press authorities for the release of the former prime minister, who has been in jail since last August.
The government last week passed the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, 2024 to streamline the process for obtaining permission to hold public gatherings in Islamabad and designating specific areas for such activity.
The Islamabad administration had allowed the PTI to hold the rally in Islamabad from 4pm till 7pm on Sunday, but later said in a letter to PTI Islamabad President Amir Masood Mughal that the condition had not been adhered to by the party.
“Three PTI leaders, Barrister Gohar Khan, Shoaib Shaheen and Sher Afzal Marwat were arrested today,” Islamabad police spokesperson Taqi Jawad told Arab News.
“They were arrested due to violation of new law, the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, in PTI gathering on September 8.”
The new law proposes three-year jail terms for participants of “illegal” assemblies, with ten-year imprisonment for repeat offenders.
Footage shared by the PTI on X showed its chairman Gohar Khan being taken away by the Islamabad police.
“The chairman of Pakistan’s largest political party with the biggest voter base, Barrister Gohar, has been arrested at the gates of Parliament along with other PTI leaders and Members of the National Assembly,” the PTI said on X.
“This shows how opposition is being suppressed using brute force.”
Khan’s PTI says it has faced a months-long crackdown since protesters linked to the party attacked and damaged government and military installations on May 9, 2023, after Khan’s brief arrest that day in a land graft case.
Hundreds of PTI followers and leaders were arrested following the riots and many remain behind bars as they await trial. The military has also initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence.
“The government and the establishment have been in depression since yesterday’s rally and the leaders of Tehreek-e-Insaaf are being arrested right now,” Shahbaz Gill, a PTI member and Khan ally, said on X.
“Will all this help stop this movement? Get some sense. This is Imran Khan’s time.”
Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, faces a slew of charges and was convicted in four cases since he was first taken into custody, all of which have been either suspended or overturned by the courts. He remains in jail, however, on new charges brought by Pakistan’s national accountability watchdog regarding the illegal sale of gifts from a state repository while he was prime minister from 2018 till 2022.
The ex-premier has waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against Pakistan’s powerful military and blamed the then army leadership of orchestrating his ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April 2022. The army says it does not interfere in political affairs.