PDM’s local leaders booked for organizing Mardan rally

MARDAN: The police here on Wednesday registered cases against several local leaders of the opposition parties for arranging a rally without permission, sources said.

The sources added that City Police Station officials registered cases against Haji Khan Akbar of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Uema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) district General Secretary Maulana Amanat Shah Haqqani, former deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) district Chairman Mujeeb-ur-Rahman and Awami National Party (ANP)’s Latif-ur-Rahman, Javed Yousafzai and others.

They said the opposition parties staged a rally in Mardan under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on December 23 in the limits of City Police Station without taking permission from the district administration.

The deputy commissioner Mardan had warned that action would be taken against the organizers of the PDM rally for violating the ban on holding public rallies.

The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic was cited as the reason for the ban as the public meetings could serve as super-spreaders of the virus.

However, no arrests have yet been made and it is unclear if anyone would be arrested. It may be added that cases were also registered against the local office-bearers of the PDM component parties in Peshawar in November for organizing the public rally in violation of the ban, but none of them has yet been arrested.