LAHORE: The Punjab Police launched a crackdown on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-affiliated lawyers outside Aiwan-e-Adl on Wednesday, arresting dozens of protesters and briefly detaining a journalist during a rally marking three years since the imprisonment of PTI founder Imran Khan.
A large number of PTI lawyers gathered outside Aiwan-e-Adl, chanted slogans, and demanded the release of Imran Khan. Heavy police deployment at the venue moved to disperse the demonstrators, leading to clashes and the arrest of several participants.
During the operation, Aaj News court reporter Natiq Rehan was allegedly assaulted by police while covering the protest. According to the journalist, police officials prevented him from performing his professional duties, slapped and beat him with batons, seized his mobile phone, and forced him into a prison van.
Rehan said he was carrying out routine media coverage when 10 to 15 police personnel allegedly attacked and detained him. Following intervention by journalists’ representative bodies, he was released after being held for nearly half an hour.
SSP City Atif Ameer confirmed to Business Recorder that 18 people had been arrested during the operation. However, he said some detainees were released shortly afterward, while the remaining individuals would also be freed after completion of legal formalities.
Meanwhile, Chief Organiser of Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP) Punjab Ammar Ali Jan and the party’s Punjab Information Secretary Shayan Bashir strongly condemned what they termed “indiscriminate police violence” against peaceful demonstrators.
In a statement, the TTAP leaders said thousands of party workers, lawyers, and civil society members had gathered outside Aiwan-e-Adl to mark the anniversary of Imran Khan’s imprisonment when police allegedly baton-charged the gathering without provocation. They claimed that women, children, and elected representatives were among those assaulted.
They further alleged that PTI Lahore President Mian Akram Usman and Punjab Assembly member Sheikh Imtiaz were manhandled during the crackdown. According to the party, more than 50 workers, including sitting members of the Punjab Assembly, were taken into custody.
The TTAP leaders said protests were also held in Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Kasur, Jhang, Kamalia, and several other districts across Punjab. They maintained that the police action reflected the government’s intolerance towards peaceful political dissent.
Condemning the operation, Ammar Ali Jan said the use of force was not directed against a single political party but against constitutional rights. “When the state clubs women, children, and elected representatives outside a courthouse, it is not policing a crowd; it is informing ordinary people that the Constitution was written for somebody else,” he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026