Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has alleged that its lawyer was kidnapped by police in an attempt to prevent the party’s candidate from submitting nomination papers for the by-election in Punjab Assembly constituency PP-167.
According to Jamaat-e-Islami, the incident occurred on the day nomination papers were to be filed for the PP-167 seat, which fell vacant following the death of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Irfan Shafi Khokhar. JI’s candidate for the seat, Chaudhry Abdul Qayyum Gujjar, was represented by lawyer Ijaz-ul-Hassan Ghauri.
JI Lahore Ameer Ziauddin Ansari Advocate claimed that Punjab Police kidnapped Ghauri before he could submit the nomination papers and took him to Mustafa Town Police Station. He alleged that the purpose of the abduction was to block the submission of Chaudhry Abdul Qayyum Gujjar’s nomination papers and to clear the way for the ruling party’s candidate to be elected unopposed.
Ziauddin Ansari, along with Jamaat-e-Islami Lahore Deputy Secretaries Qaiser Sharif, Abdul Aziz Abid, Dr. Mahmood Khan and other party leaders, met the Returning Officer (RO) to protest the incident. He said that when the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership reached the RO office, the police personnel involved released the kidnapped lawyer.
JI leaders alleged that all doors of the Returning Officer’s office were closed ahead of time and that people who came to submit nomination papers were prevented from entering. Ansari claimed that only the nomination papers of “government-favoured candidates” were accepted, calling the situation a clear example of “fascism” and “undemocratic behaviour” by the provincial government.
“The provincial government’s fascism has come to light today on the occasion of filing nomination papers,” Ansari said, accusing the ruling party of hooliganism and intimidation. He added that the Punjab Police should not “try to be more loyal to the King than the King,” and warned that insulting behaviour towards electoral candidates would not be tolerated.
Jamaat-e-Islami announced that it will challenge the incident both in court and before the Election Commission of Pakistan. “We will condemn this fascism on the streets and in the courts,” Ansari said, demanding accountability from the Punjab government and police over what he described as an illegal and politically motivated act.
