PAT President Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi has said that none of our workers attacked police nor took law in his hands and despite this, police registered false cases against our innocent workers, adding that the verdicts are being passed against them based on submission of false evidence of police. He said that there is a dual law in Punjab and the Chief Minister is using the state machinery to snatch from political opponents their right to life.

The meeting was attended by PAT Punjab President Basharat Aziz Jaspal, Sheikh Zahid Fayyaz, GM Malik, Jawad Hamid, Sajid Bhatti, Razia Naveed, Shoaib Tahir and others.

Dr Raheeq Abbasi expressed these views while addressing a hurriedly called meeting of the party here in central secretariat today. He said that the Chief Minister cannot scare or intimidate the PAT workers by employing vindictive actions. He said that we are filing a petition in Lahore High Court against the verdict of anti-terrorism court against our workers of Gojra, adding that the punishments have been handed down on the false cases registered against our workers by police. He said that 14 people were martyred and 85 others were injured in Model town in the worst ever example of state terrorism and to cap it all, fair investigation has not been initiated into the epoch tragedy to this day. He asked, why did the state institutions not see this brutality?

Dr Abbasi said that our workers were holding a meeting to discuss their plan of participating in the Martyrs’ Day in August 2014 when the police conducted an illegal raid in violation of Articles 15 and 16 by breeching sanctity of home, usurped fundamental rights of workers, subjected them to torture and had the audacity of registering false cases against them. He said that this was the worst example of state terrorism and hooliganism. He said that the PML-N MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees invaded a police station in Faisalabad to get proclaimed offenders released forcibly, broke teeth of a sub-inspector, tortured police constables. He said that the TV channels showed the footage of this incident throughout the world. He said that police registered the case but the Chief Minister ensured that no one had the courage to touch his MPA and forced the police to withdraw their statements. He said that the Chief Minister did not rest till he secured the release of his MPA with his dignity intact.

The PAT President said that false cases were registered against PAT workers on the other hand. He said that the Chief Minister is using the state machinery to victimize the political opponents and he is behaving like a despot in the province. He said that the rulers are responsible for killing innocent PAT workers and they would have to answer for their actions. He said that they are getting the PAT workers punished in an attempt to save their skin and brush the issue under the carpet, adding that the PAT workers would not be browbeaten into submission through such devious tactics.