Sixteen leaders of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been booked for holding a public rally in Chunian without permission from the district administration ahead of the NA-132 by-election in Kasur district.
The first information report (FIR) registered at the Khaddian Police Station also implicates at least 600 unidentified workers of the PTI-SIC.
The 16 PTI-SIC leaders booked include Sher Afzal Marwat and Sardar Muhammad Hussain Dogar.
The FIR details that the SIC had not acquired a no-objection certificate for the rally, where SIC leaders incited people through “anti-state narrative", and weapons were brandished.
The FIR, lodged under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), states that the SIC leaders had violated the Election Commission of Pakistan's code of conduct as well.
The NA-132 seat fell vacant after Shehbaz Sharif decided to retain his NA-123 Lahore-VII seat. Shehbaz had won the NA-132 seat, beating PTI-backed independent candidate Muhammad Hussain Dogar with a difference of more than 25,000 votes.