LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday stopped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from holding a rally coming Sunday at Minar-e-Pakistan (Iqbal Park) as it asked the party to ‘let citizens live their routine life’.
The party had announced to hold a “historic” public rally at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan on March 19 (Sunday) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was set to lead it. Fawad Chaudhry, PTI’s Senior-Vice President had moved the LHC a day earlier seeking to stop the police operation in the Zaman Park area as the police moved to arrest Khan in the Toshakhana case as per court orders.
After an initial hearing on Wednesday, the court had ordered police to suspend the operation till 10am Thursday (today) — which helped the area return to normalcy which had turned into a battleground a day earlier.
On Thursday, when Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh of the LHC resumed the hearing, he noted that neither the LHC nor the Islamabad High Court had stopped the law-enforcers from executing the deposed prime minister’s arrest warrants. It is to mention here that the PTI workers clashed for nearly 24 hours with the law-enforcers trying to get through the PTI supporters and arrest Imran Khan, who was voted out as country’s prime minister last April.
Scores of people including police personnel were injured in the process as the law enforcers fired teargas shells and the party supporters resorted to throwing Molotov cocktails. Legal proceedings against Imran Khan began after he was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote early 2022. Since then, he held nationwide protest rallies demanding snap elections, during one of which he was shot and wounded at Wazirabad.
Thursday’s LHC hearing
As the hearing was underway, Justice Saleem said that he does not “find any issue” in the situation, but noted that neither of the parties involved in the case has read the law. “All of these issues have arisen because the law was not read,” he said, adding that today, “all of us will read the law together”. He said that both sides have “jammed the system”.
Justice Saleem reprimanded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf counsel and said that the issue is of Khan’s warrants and the party keeps knocking on the doors of both IHC and LHC. “You are unaware of where you have to plead. We just have to follow the law in this case.”
As Fawad entered the courtroom, the judge told him that his party was not following the law. “You [people] have pushed the nation into suffering.” At this, the PTI leader told the court that when the party chief has to appear before four courts subsequently, it becomes hard for him. “We are 100 percent sure about an attack on Imran Khan and that is why we had requested his presence at hearings via video link.”
The judge then said there is a proper procedure for seeking security for a person and stressed that the party should bring “itself inside the system’s ambit”.
The judge then slammed the party for not planning its public gathering ahead of time and said that if they wanted to hold a rally, then the preparations should have begun 15 days prior.
The judge then asked the party leader to sit down with authorities and sort out the issue. “We are being embarrassed as a nation,” the judge remarked, asking the PTI to once again reschedule its rally.
Punjab Advocate General Shan Gul then told the judge that IHC’s order has also been issued. The advocate general said that there is no need for this hearing.
At this, Justice Saleem said that he has not touched the arrest warrants. “Neither the Lahore High Court nor the Islamabad High Court stopped from executing the arrest warrants.” The court then adjourned the hearing till 11 a.m. tomorrow (Friday).
