LAHORE: A Punjab Police report on Friday revealed that at least 63 female workers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were arrested from eight different cities of the province during two months after the May 9 violence.
The Punjab Police’s report, submitted to the Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister, stated that majority of the women 47 workers were arrested from Lahore.
It stated that 22 of the arrested female workers were sent to jail on remand upon completion of interrogation.
It is to be noted here that thousands of male and female workers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were arrested during a crackdown launched after attacks on and vandalism of military installations in different areas of the country on May 9, 2023.
Earlier in response to the PTI’s claim that dozens of its female workers had been arrested specially in Punjab, both the Punjab government and police had denied having arrested such a large number of women of the party.
According to a report of Punjab Inspector General of Prisons Mian Farooq Nazir, Punjab’s jails are housing only seven women prisoners belonging to the PTI. They include former provincial health minister Prof Dr Yasmin Rashid and Khadija Shah, the famous dress designer and a granddaughter of former army chief Asif Nawaz Janjua.
He said all the seven PTI women leaders and workers arrested in the cases lodged against them under charges of terrorism and attacks on military installations are being kept in various barracks of Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail where 150 other women prisoners are also confined.
“We have only seven PTI leaders and workers, including Prof Yasmin Rashid and Khadija Shah,” Punjab Inspector General of Prisons Mian Farooq Nazir had said while talking to Dawn.
He had rejected reports of mistreatment, saying that Dr Yasmin Rashid and Khadija among seven women being kept at Kot Lakhpat while putting the total number of PTI prisoners across province at 1,800.
He added that there are 43 jails in Punjab and no female PTI leader or worker is confined in any other jail of the province except the seven mentioned above who are being kept in the lady ward of the Kot Lakhpat Jail.
“All the seven PTI women have undergone medical tests conducted by the women doctors at the lady ward of the Kot Lakhpat Jail,” Mr Nazir asserts and added that medical tests done multiple times of all the seven PTI leaders and the workers show that their health condition is quite stable.
