The Islamabad police on Thursday stormed the Parliament Lodges and arrested member Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) MNA Salahuddin Ayubi and Maulana Jamal-ud-Din besides 17 other workers. The police entered the lodges on a tip-off pertaining to the presence of volunteers of JUI-F’s subsidiary Ansarul Islam. About 17 workers of the party were apprehended following the failure of talks. The law enforcement agency reportedly broke the door of the MNA’s room to arrest him. Islamabad Inspector General of Police Muhammad Ahsan Younus took notice of the group’s presence inside the lodges.
Following the arrests of several workers and parliamentarians, JUI chief Fazl arrived at the Parliament Lodges to surrender himself before the police.
While speaking to the press, he urged all his party workers to reach the Parliament Lodges as soon as possible. He said that the “government wants to abduct the Opposition’s members of the National Assembly by arresting them” to reduce their numbers during the session when the no-confidence motion is moved. “I will surrender myself along with some of my friends,” he said, urging all workers to reach Islamabad as soon as possible. “I request all party workers to block roads and shut down businesses,” Fazl said.
Former president and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari condemned the “police brutality” in the Parliament Lodges, saying that “puppet Prime Minister Imran Khan is harassing the members of the Parliament by creating fear and terror among them.”
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain said the attack of JUI’s force on the Parliament Lodges is “condemnable from all aspects.” Taking to his official Twitter handle, Chaudhry said that the armed group had reached the Parliament Lodges to “put pressure on the parliamentarians.” He further said that the Opposition will fail in its no-confidence motion against PM Imran Khan.
Taking notice of the issue, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said that Islamabad police should refrain from acting like the prime minister’s “stooges”.
“It is inappropriate to blame oneself for such insane acts, and the government will have to face difficulties because of this,” she wrote on Twitter. Maryam urged PM Imran Khan to “open his eyes and see his party falling” because of his actions and not because of the Opposition or foreign conspiracy.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the police operation in Parliament Lodges is “proof of Imran Khan’s nervousness.” “Violence against members of the Parliament and their arrests is unbearable and this is enough,” he said, adding that consequences of such “dictatorial acts” will not be good for the PTI government.
The members of the Parliament later staged a sit-in inside its premises in protest of the operation. PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Opposition in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akram Khan Durrani, PML-N leaders Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Khawaja Saad Rafique, PPP’s Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and JUI General Secretary Abdul Ghafoor Haideri are present inside the Lodges. agencies
According to a tweet posted from the capital police’s official account, he suspended the officials in charge at D-Chowk under whose watch the Ansarul Islam workers had entered the lodges. Subsequently, he personally led the operation.
Suring the operation, police instructed the media to evacuate the building as they made their way towards the lodge of Ansar-ul-Islam MNA – Salahuddin Ayubi – which was situated on the fourth floor of the building. Shortly afterwards, Ayubi’s staff and police personnel entered into a clash. Several parliamentarians of the PPP and PML-N were also present in the lodges at the time, while JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman also reached the venue.
During a scuffle between the police and Ayubi’s staff at the lodges, PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique was injured when his foot hit the door.
Rafique, while talking to journalists, said that Ayaz Sadiq was holding a meeting in the lodges when the incident happened. “We found out that the police had entered the lodges and had surrounded it,” he said, adding that when his party members tried contacting the police, they were informed that the police had warrants against some people. “We tried to convince them that they could not enter the lodges, but the police personnel remained adamant and entered by force.”
