LAHORE: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has planned ‘crackdowns on Pakistan League Nawaz (PML-N) leadership’ in the Punjab province.
Sources told News360 that the Punjab government led by PTI and its ally, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) decided to launch large-scale crackdowns on PML-N leadership.
Sources added that the provincial government prepared lists of the PML-N leaders and government officials who had been found involved in targeting PTI leaders and workers at the March 25 Azadi March in Islamabad and other parts of the province.
It was learnt that a committee has been formed to lead the crackdowns and arrests of the PML-N leaders are likely to be started at any moment.
Sources detailed that the provincial authorities have also planned to arrest PML-N central leaders including Rana Sanaullah, Attaullah Tarar, Malik Ahmed Khan and others. Moreover, the government also decided to expedite the legal action and arrests against the nominated persons in the Model Town incident.
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Three days ago, News360 reported that PTI finalised a strategy to counter the ‘crackdown plan’ of the coalition government and decided to resist the Centre’s move to initiate large-scale arrests of the PTI leaders following the verdict of the prohibited funding case.
However, the latest development indicated that PTI and PML-Q will make the move first prior to the initiation of ‘crackdowns’ by the Centre.
Centre planned crackdowns too
Earlier, it emerged that the coalition government planned to launch crackdowns against PTI leaders following the verdict announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the prohibited funding case besides mulling over the inclusion of Imran Khan’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL).
The coalition government planned to arrest Imran Khan’s close aides and PTI’s central and provincial leaders across the country through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other concerned institutions under the 12-point charge sheet of the ECP.
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Sources said that Asad Qaiser, Imran Ismail, Qasim Khan Suri, Shah Farman and many others could face arrests in the expected crackdowns.
It was learnt that the government’s machinery will swing into action across the country after getting a green signal from the Centre. Some reports suggested that PTI’s secretariat employees and central finance board members will also be probed in the coming days.
News360 sources said that PTI prepared a strategy to foil the crackdowns of the federal government by asking the Punjab government to immediately initiate arrests of the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), especially the ruling party in the Centre, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), who were accused in different cases.
Sources said that the Punjab government has been advised to make a tit-for-tat move against the coalition government if it starts arrests of PTI leaders. They revealed that the provincial government in Punjab will immediately arrest the accused PDM leaders maintaining equal proportion.