PML-N activists clash with police outside accountability court

ISLAMABAD: Police resorted to teargas shelling on Monday to disperse the charged activists of the PML-N who were constantly chanting pro-Nawaz slogans and trying to enter into the Judicial Complex before announcement of the court decision in two references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Police personnel said some workers pelted stones on them while the PML-N activists were of the view that they were just chanting slogans when the policemen started teargas shelling due to which many of them received minor injuries.

No formal call was given to the workers by the PML-N leadership, but a large number of workers gathered on Kashmir Highway and outside the Judicial Complex. Mainstream party leaders were also accompanying the workers including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah and Marriyum Aurangzeb.

The PML-N activists also blocked the Kashmir Highway for some time that disrupted the vehicular traffic on one of the main highways of the federal capital. The vehicle carrying Nawaz Sharif took almost 45 minutes to cover the last one kilometre distance from the Judicial Complex due to a huge rush of the party workers.

When the vehicle carrying Nawaz Sharif reached in front of the accountability court, the female workers gathered around the car and started chanting slogans. Marriyum Aurangzeb, who was leading the female workers, chanted slogans in favour of Nawaz Sharif.

The security officials only allowed the car of Nawaz Sharif to enter the Judicial Complex and other vehicles were not allowed due to security reasons. A government official also got injured when one of the walkthrough gates installed at the court premises fell after effort by the PML-N workers to enter the Judicial Complex. The outside doors of the Judicial Complex were locked and even the media persons and mainstream leaders of the PML-N were not allowed to enter the premises. The doors were only opened when Nawaz Sharif arrived in a car that was being driven by opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz. Former federal minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and other party leaders made efforts to pave the way for the vehicle of Nawaz Sharif but the party workers who gathered around his car continued to shower love to their leader.