No sit-in allowed without any permission: IHC

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Hearing petition against JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s ‘Azadi March’, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) clarified that no one can stage a sit-in without permission of administration. A single bench of the high court comprises of Chief Justice Athar Minallah while hearing the petition directed deputy commissioner of the capital city to maintain law and order. It is pertinent to mention here that the anti-government March announced by the JUI-F is scheduled to take place on October 27. The permission for the sit-in will not be granted, if the party will not apply for it, the bench remarked. The court granted permission to the PTI as per the law when the party held sit-in (in 2014), the bench further remarked. Petitioner Hafiz Ahtisham while pleading his case in person requested the court to prohibit Maulana Fazlur Rehman from his announced ‘Azadi March’ and the sit-in. The petitioner said that the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court earlier ordered that a protest and sit-in should be restricted to a fixed place to avoid any disruption in routine life. The bench told the petitioner that his plea was premature. Petitioner pleaded the bench for permission to appoint a lawyer for pleading his case. The bench granted permission and adjourned the hearing for one week. On Tuesday, a petition seeking to stop the JUI-F from staging a march and sit-in – which is scheduled to take place on October 27 against the incumbent government – in Islamabad was filed in the IHC. On October 6, Maulaan Fazlur Rehman had cleared that his Azadi march would only end when the government falls. “The entire country will be our battleground,” he said. “Our strategy will not remain stagnant. We will keep changing it to cope with [any] situation,” he said. He insisted that a “flood of people from all over the country” was coming to join the march. The JUI-F chief said that the whole country would turn into a battlefield once protests are started against the incumbent government. “The country’s economy has been destroyed and employment opportunities have been brought to an end. We will become the voice of a common man and Pakistan. “Imran Khan has put Pakistan in trouble by talking about nuclear war. It is a diplomatic failure of Pakistan to indulge in warmongering.”