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The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered the city’s deputy commissioner to decide by 5pm upon PTI’s petitions for permission to hold a rally in the provincial capital tomorrow.
A three-member bench, constituted by LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, took up the petitions a day ago and sought the personal appearance of top civil brass, including the Punjab chief secretary, the police chief, the commissioner, the DC, and the advocate general.
The PTI has already launched its mass contact campaign to muster support for the much-hyped Lahore power show at the Minar-i-Pakistan ground.
The petitions for tomorrow’s gathering had been filed by PTI leaders, including ex-MNA Aalia Hamza Malik, MPA Imtiaz Mahmood Sheikh and party’s Lahore Vice President Akmal Khan Bari.
Today, the bench — headed by Justice Farooq Haider and also including Justices Tariq Nadeem and Ali Zia Bajwa — resumed hearing the pleas. It issued orders to DC Syed Musa Raza to decide on PTI’s fresh application by 5pm today.
While the party had approached the DC for a no-objection certification (NOC) for the rally, the LHC judge directed the registrar’s office to fix for hearing a separate petition that the PTI had filed seeking permission for holding the rally.
Each time the party sought permission to hold its power show in recent months, the Punjab Home Department imposed Section 144 to ban political gatherings.
The department did so on Aug 21 and ensured PTI leaders and workers did not reach Islamabad to attend the Aug 22 power show, which was postponed at the eleventh hour.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari raised the question of why “people who want to spew hatred and swear on the stage” be permitted to organise a rally.
“You will never hear any political talk from their stage,” she said while speaking to Geo News earlier today.
The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, various officers concerned, including Inspector General of Punjab (IG) Dr Usman Anwar and Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, appeared before the court.
Insaf Lawyers’ Forum-Pakistan President Ishtiaq A. Khan was present as the PTI’s counsel.
When Justice Haider noted that Punjab Advocate General Khalid Ishaq had not come, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Balighur Rahman told the court that the former had a prior engagement in the Supreme Court.
The Punjab government’s counsel then requested the court to declare the PTI’s petitions as unmaintainable.
Rahman argued that Malik had not approached the relevant forum to seek permission for the rally and denied her claims of “harassment”, saying there was “no truth” in them.
The counsel further apprised the court that after PTI MNA Omar Ayub approached the district administration for the event’s permission, the Lahore deputy inspector general (operations) and the district intelligence committee held a meeting to deliberate upon it.
“Reservations were voiced on the PTI’s past attitude,” AAG Rahman said, adding that “speeches full of hatred” were made at the party’s Sangjani gathering.
“Punjabis, be ready. The stage is about to be set up,” the AAG quoted PTI’s absconding Hammad Azhar as saying in the Swabi power show in August.
When Justice Bajwa asked PTI lawyer Ishtiaq whether his client had submitted an application to the Lahore DC for an NOC, the latter replied in the affirmative, adding that the request was filed by a member of the PTI’s central executive committee.
Upon the judge’s inquiry, DC Raza refuted the claim: “We have not received any application for the permission of a rally.”
The judge then asked the PTI lawyer to furnish “any documentation which tells us that the party had permitted Aalia Hamza to submit a petition”.
Subsequently, the LHC then directed the PTI to file a request seeking approval for its planned gathering, adding that the court would want to conclude the case by today.
Adjourning the hearing till 10:15am, Justice Haider warned that if the PTI did not submit its application by then, he would issue an “important order”.
“All officers would remain in the courtroom,” the judge further ordered.
When the hearing resumed, Justice Nadeem directed Zaman, the Punjab chief secretary, to come to the rostrum. “We exist if this country does,” the judge remarked.
“Those who are in the government today, were part of the opposition yesterday,” he observed, adding the chief secretary was “working back then as well as today”.
“Should there not be a permanent solution to this issue?” Justice Nadeem asked.
Noting that plenty of legislation was enacted — an apparent reference to a law recently passed on gatherings in Islamabad — the judge suggested that similarly, a “specific location” could be dedicated to rallies in Lahore.
“IG Punjab is also present here; you both can make this happen and take the credit,” Justice Nadeem remarked. “The world has reached great heights and here, were are still saying ‘there is no permission for a rally or to speak’,” he lamented.
At this point during the hearing, Justice Haider said: “IG Punjab sahib, we cannot expect illegal harassment while you are [serving].”
In response, the police chief asserted that “no case has been reported” about alleged harassment by the police. However, senior lawyer Latif Khosa interjected, saying there were police patrolling outside his house “for many days to harass”.
“We have not harassed anyone,” IG Anwar reiterated.
The petition was then submitted to the Lahore DC in the courtroom.
Subsequently, the LHC ordered DC Raza to decide upon the request by 5pm today and disposed of the PTI’s petitions.
Meanwhile, the court also rejected a civil miscellaneous application, filed by Advocate Nadeem Sarwar, seeking to block PTI’s rallies in Punjab. “You are not an affected party,” Justice Haider observed.
On Thursday, the same full bench had disposed of a similar petition by Sarwar, declaring it unjustified.
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