Karachi Police have registered a case against PTI Sindh President Ali Haider Zaidi and 17 other party workers under terrorism and other charges after rival political activists clashed outside the Keamari deputy commissioner’s office on Wednesday evening, it emerged on Thursday.
The clashes followed Sunday’s local government elections, the contentious results of which were called into question by the PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami, whose workers took to the streets. The second phase of the local government elections was held in 16 districts of Sindh on Sunday.
However, major contesting parties including the ruling PPP had raised concerns over an unusual delay in the results in Karachi and blamed the Election Commission of Pakistan for mismanagement.
The PTI and PPP workers had clashed outside the Keamari DC office on Wednesday evening, where the PTI accused the PPP of attacking its workers while the Keamari DC maintained that PTI workers forcibly entered the office and harassed staff.
The FIR has been registered under Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-terrorism Act, 2017 along with Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 324 (attempt to commit qatl-i-amd), 506-b (punishment for criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc), and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Pakistan Penal Code 1860.
