FIR registered against Maryam, PML-N workers for clash outside NAB Lahore office

A first information report (FIR) was registered on Wednesday against PML-N vicepresident Maryam Nawaz Sharif and party workers over Tuesday’s clash outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office in Lahore.A day earlier, after Maryam arrived for a hearing in a case pertaining to “illegal” acquisition of land, violence erupted outside the anti-graft watchdog’s office as heavy police contingents and workers of the PML-N clashed. Many people, including some officials, were injured and around 50 men were rounded up after police fired tear gas besides hurling back stones at the activists, with each side blaming the other for triggering the clash.

Mariam claimed the government had planned to “cause harm” to her through police action, while posting a video of her bulletproof car’s broken windshield on her Twitter account. The FIR, which was filed by NAB’s Director of Security and Intelligence Mohammad Asghar at the Chung police station, stated that Maryam had been called to the bureau’s Lahore office in a “personal capacity”. But instead of merely appearing for the hearing, the FIR alleged she “incited PML-N workers at the behest of her husband Safdar Awan”.

“The workers then started displaying thuggery — pelting stones and creating disorder.” Besides Maryam and her husband, the FIR also named multiple PML-N leaders including Rana Sanaullah, Mirza Javed, Javed Latif, Mian Abdul Raouf and 184 other supporters. It also pointed to the involvement of another 300 unnamed workers who the security team “would be able to identify from the pictures and video footage”.

The FIR also identified different vehicles that came to the NAB office as part of Maryam’s caravan.

“This is the first time in NAB’s 20-year history that this level of horrendous attitude has been shown in which the day to day office operations of the organisation have been destroyed and the state’s work has been interfered with,” it said.

“This evil act was done by Mariam Safdar and her husband Safdar Awan after proper planning and coordination with the PML-N workers. They also brought stones in their cars from Jati Umra,” the FIR stated, adding that MPA Mirza Javed and his son had also come to the NAB office with bags of stones in their car.

The FIR also alleged that the workers had organised an “unlawful assembly on Maryam’s instigation” and were told to disperse by the police. “The PML-N workers under their leadership’s guidance also pelted stones at the police officials.”