A first information report (FIR) was registered against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Captain (r) Safdar Awan under sedition charges on Sunday.
According to reports, PML-N’s Punjab Assembly member, Imran Khalid Butt, has also been named in the FIR, registered at the Gujranwala’s Satellite Town Police Station.
The FIR states that Safdar threatened to ‘oust the government through the force of protests’. He is also said to have provoked people against state and its administrative institutions. The FIR further maintains that he warned of forcibly taking permission from the authorities to hold the October 16 rally if the party was not allowed to.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had earlier announced that the party would hold a rally in Gujranwala on October 16, one of many to be held as part of countrywide protests against the arrest of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif by the NAB, and to oust the incumbent PTI government.
On October 2, a meeting of the PML-N’s Central Working Committee accorded approval to its social mobilisation plan under which countrywide protests would be held against the PTI-led government.
As per the details, two protests were to be held against the arrest of Shehbaz Sharif – one on October 3 in Lahore, while the second on October 9 in the rest of Punjab.
Convicted former premier Nawaz Sharif would address MPAs and provincial assembly ticket holders on October 7 and later on October 8. He would address party’s senators, MNAs and ticket holders of both the houses of parliament. On October 12, the PML-N would organise a workers convention in Karachi.
Later, from October 12 to December 4, the PML-N would organise workers conventions (WCs) and provincial general council (PGC) meetings at the district level. Of these WCs and PGC, seven would be held in Punjab, three in Sindh, three in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and two in Balochistan.
