Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, and other PTI top leaders have been booked for violating Section 144. Section 144 which prohibits public meetings of more than four people was imposed on August 20 in Islamabad, the day PTI conducted a rally to protest against the detention of Shahbaz Gill.
According to the first information report (FIR) filed on August 22 at the Aabpara police station, a case was filed under Sections 109 (penalty of abetment if the Act is abetted in consequence and where no specific provision is made for its punishment), 188 (disobedience to order properly proclaimed by a public servant), 186 (obstructing a public servant in the execution of public tasks), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), and 506 ((punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
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Section 2 of the Control of Loudspeaker and Sound Amplifiers Act, 1965 (which restricts the use of loudspeakers) was also included in the complaint, which was submitted by Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Muhammad Anwar.
Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed Khan, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Asad Umar, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Ali Nawaz Awan, Faisal Vawda, Shahzad Wasim, Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, Shibli Faraz, Fawad Chaudhry, Saifullah Khan Niazi, Shehryar Afridi, Fayyazul Hasan Chohan, Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Asad Qaiser, Zaheer Abbas Khokar, and Major Ghulam Sarwar were the other PTI leaders nominated in the FIR.
The FIR also stated that during the rally, Islamabad police had made announcements via loudspeakers that Section 144 had been implemented in the city and there was a ban on public gatherings.
The PTI leaders, however, continued with their plan and directed their supporters to reach F-9 park where Imran Khan addressed a charged crowd.
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Reacting to the news of another case filed against PTI, Asad Umar, the secretary general of the party, tweeted “Another FIR has been filed against me in connection with the F9 rally. I was in Lahore that day and my speech from outside the Data Darbar was also broadcasted on television.”
میرے اوپر ایک اور FIR کاٹ دی ہے ایف 9 ریلی کے سلسلے میں. اس دن میں لاہور تھا اور داتا دربار کے باہر سے میری تقریر ٹیلی-ویژن پر نشر بھی ہوئ. بیچارے کچھ زیادہ ہی بوکھلا گئے ہیں
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) August 23, 2022
On August 20, Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar led a separate rally in Lahore to register PTI’s protest in solidarity with Shahbaz Gill.