On 11 February 2019, the Pakistani police cracked down and arrested Progressive Youth Alliance students and activists including Rawal Asad from their Multan office. They were charges with numerous cases including sedition. Others managed to get pre-arrest bail but Rawal Asad is still held in jail and there is a threat that the state police will torture him in the lockup and hold him forever. His only crime is that he is an activist who is trying to organise students and workers against injustices. Rawal Asad was arrested when he joined a protest in solidarity called by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Multan. He was protesting the killing of a PTM leader, Arman Luni, who was a college professor and was tortured by a police officer. Arman died as a result of the torture.

News report available here

Rawal Asad is an undergraduate student and political activist of Government Emerson College in Multan.  From high school times, he has been involved in protests against fee hikes, for the restoration of student unions and on many other student-related issues. Currently, he is active in the labour movement and is always at the forefront of labour struggles and workers’ protests for their rights including against healthcare privatisation, against non-payment of wages to workers and many more.

Pakistan Trade Union Solidarity Campaign appeals to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and Pakistan High Commissioner to the  UK, H.E. Mohammad Nafees Zakaria  demanding immediate release of Rawal Asad and to drop all fake charges brought against him especially of sedition.