JI demands govt shows seriousness for talks by ‘immediately’ releasing detained protesters – Pakistan

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded that the federal government present its seriousness for talks with the get together by releasing protesters detained on Friday.

The JI chief was addressing the get together’s sit-in at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh after the get together put out the decision for all its protesters and supporters within the twin cities to go to the venue for Rehman to announce the following plan of motion because it took out its protest in opposition to inflation.

The federal authorities earlier supplied talks to the get together.

A day in the past, the district administration in an announcement had acknowledged that Section 144 was already imposed in Islamabad. The authorized provision empowers district administrations to ban an meeting of 4 or extra folks in an space for a restricted interval. It mentioned prohibition of the order would result in strict motion. Section 144 was additionally imposed throughout Punjab from July 26 to 29.

The restrictions had come because the capital braced for one other political showdown, as JI introduced a sit-in at D-Chowk to protest worth hikes, excessive electrical energy payments, and elevated revenue tax. Meanwhile, the PTI-led opposition alliance, TTAP, referred to as for nationwide protests in opposition to alleged political victimization and demanded the discharge of former premier Imran Khan.

Despite the restrictions, JI started its protests in Islamabad within the night and claimed that the Islamabad police arrested greater than a dozen of its activists and native workplace-bearers.

In retaliation to the alleged arrests, the get together introduced that it had determined to carry rallies throughout three key factors in Islamabad after being confronted with obstructions and arrests.

“The JI has revealed its Plan B. After facing obstacles and arrests, the JI hold sit-in across three points [across the federal capital],” the get together introduced on the X platform.

It added that Rehman would lead the protest at Islamabad’s Zero Point, Secretary General Amirul Azim would lead an indication at Rawalpindi’s Murree Road, whereas a 3rd rally can be held on the federal capital’s 26 Number Chungi.

The JI mentioned that as per Rehman’s directions, there can be a sit-in wherever there was an impediment and the get together would now maintain a number of protests as a substitute of 1.

“The sit-ins will continue until the demands are accepted,” it mentioned.

Addressing the gathered get together supporters at Liaquat Bagh later, Rehman mentioned whereas addressing the federal government’s supply for talks: “Don’t do press conferences. Make an authorised committee that will talk with our committee. We will announce our committee shortly after consultation.”

Rehman mentioned the committee can be instructed to gauge within the first assembly if the federal government workforce was only a delaying tactic or if it was severe. He added the sit-in would proceed till the federal government reached a choice.

“I also want to say to the government that all our workers they’ve arrested … they should be immediately released and if they are, then we will consider you are serious about talks.”

On the sit-in’s period, he mentioned: “I am giving no timeframe. Are you ready if this sit-in continues for a month or more?”

Reiterating the get together’s demands, he mentioned it solely needed aid for the folks, a discount of their energy payments and a clampdown on unbiased energy producers.

The get together shared varied visuals of its many supporters protesting within the federal capital.

Rehman addressed a crowd gathered at Islamabad’s Toll Plaza.

The get together’s secretary normal alleged that “all over the country, raids are being conducted on the offices of the party and the houses of officials and workers, the convoys are being stopped and arrested. This cruelty and abuse is condemnable. The government is in a frenzy.”

He appealed to the get together’s supporters to return out and attain Islamabad, saying a sit-in can be held at D-Chowk in any respect prices.

Govt gives talks

Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar mentioned whereas addressing a press convention that the JI was given permission to carry a rally in Liaquat Bagh and normal working procedures have been determined with the native administration as properly.

He mentioned transferring in direction of Islamabad didn’t make sense after the earlier association and requested Rehman that the federal authorities was able to kind a negotiating workforce for talks.

Tarar mentioned the federal government’s doorways have been at all times open and reiterated willingness to carry talks.

The data minister defended the federal government’s financial efficiency and mentioned it was taking measures for the folks’s sake resembling a current subsidy in energy payments.

Tarar mentioned the federal government would take heed to the JI’s demands and attempt to incorporate them within the authorities’s present reform agenda.

‘Arrests made’ as JI begins protests

The JI’s protests in Islamabad began in the evening and were soon met with arrests, the party claimed.

The district administration had last night sealed the federal capital’s D-Chowk by placing containers on the nearby roads and the police had arrested more than a dozen JI activists and local office-bearers.

In a statement released on Friday, JI information secretary Sajjad Ahmed Abbasi called on supporters to gather on the Islamabad Highway at the H-8/I-8 bridge situated between Faizabad and Zero Point at 5:30pm.

The party, in a post on X, mentioned that its employees had “reached D-Chowk after surpassing all obstacles”, including that police have been arresting its employees whereas sharing a video of an individual being compelled right into a police van.

Protesters gathered at Express Chowk, chanting “Jamaat-i-Islami zindabad” in addition to slogans in opposition to excessive electrical energy payments and inflation, video footage confirmed. A video confirmed police detaining a person and placing him right into a police van.

In a number of posts on X, the JI mentioned supporters from varied cities — together with Peshawar, Chitral, Swat, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Narowal and Sialkot — had departed in direction of Islamabad for the sit-in.

Islamabad police tighten security

Video footage shared by a Dawn.com correspondent earlier today showed containers placed on Islamabad roads, with police contingents deployed at various points.

Containers were placed on the Expressway Zero Point bridge while the capital police were also deployed in the nearby areas.

The Islamabad Traffic Police also issued a plan detailing various routes for the general public in case sure fundamental arteries have been blocked.

It recommended that within the case of the Peshawar-GT Road being blocked, the general public ought to use the motorway and if the Srinagar Highway was closed off, Peshawar Road and Colonel Sher Khan Road could possibly be used.

In case Faizabad was shut for visitors, automobiles coming from Rawalpindi could possibly be diverted to Khanna Bridge, Captain Tufail Shaheed Road, and Park Road whereas if Murree Road was blocked, visitors from the garrison metropolis could possibly be despatched to ninth Avenue.

PTI puts off protest to Monday

Meanwhile, the PTI sought permission for its protest from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which urged the capital administration to allow it on July 29.

Subsequently, PTI Islamabad President Amir Masood Mughal issued a video message on the X platform and announced that the party had called off its protest and scheduled it for Monday after the court’s hearing.

“We approached the deputy commissioner of Islamabad on July 23 regarding our protest in Islamabad, but there was no decision taken. On July 24, we appealed to the [Islamabad] high court following which the honorable judge suggested [the local administration] allow our protest on Monday,” Mughal said.

“In view of the [court’s decision], we are postponing today’s protest.”

The party, however, shared visuals of small-scale protests held in other cities across the country on its social media platforms. The cities included Mirpur Mathelo, Moro, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Shangla.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur additionally addressed a public gathering in Bannu.

IHC’s Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz urged the capital administration to permit the PTI to carry a protest on July 29 as she heard the get together’s petition searching for permission for at the moment’s deliberate demonstration.

On Wednesday, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had put aside the deputy commissioner’s (DC) July 5 order, which had turned down the PTI’s request to carry a rally within the capital on July 6 citing regulation and order state of affairs attributable to Muharram.

Justice Farooq had additionally ordered the DC to determine on the PTI request in accordance with the regulation by treating it as pending.

Today, Justice Imtiaz took up a petition filed by Mughal searching for permission to stage a protest. Shoaib Shaheen appeared as Mughal’s counsel whereas state counsel Malik Abdulrehman was current on the district administration’s behalf.

After listening to arguments from each side, the decide gave them two hours to debate the matter and attain an answer.

When the listening to resumed within the afternoon, Justice Imtiaz recommended that the administration permit the PTI to carry a protest on July 29 — which the state counsel argued was troublesome to ensure — and reserved the decision.

At the outset of the listening to, the state counsel knowledgeable the courtroom that the PTI’s request had been acquired and an order had additionally been issued on it.

Upon Justice Imtiaz observing there was a second protest additionally deliberate for at the moment, Abdulrehman mentioned he was not conscious of it and that the district administration had dismissed all functions searching for permission for protests.

Here, Shaheen recalled that his get together had submitted a request for a rally allow and {that a} No-Objection Certificate (NOC) had been granted however then was revoked.

“Regarding the rally, talks with them are ongoing. That is a separate matter,” the PTI chief mentioned whereas referring to the IHC’s Wednesday order on July 6 rally.

“Right now, we want to hold a peaceful protest outside the National Press Club, which is our Constitutional right. There is no need to seek permission to hold protests, meetings, etc as a high court order on it is present,” the lawyer asserted.

The state counsel rebutted that the mentioned order didn’t pertain to Section 144’s imposition. Addressing him, Justice Imtiaz remarked, “According to the reasons you are giving, no one can hold a protest.”

“Is it stated anywhere in the law that a large number of public or a huge number of women cannot gather in one place?” the decide requested. “The press club is situated in the city’s heart [so] there is a chance [of an incident] and hence, a protest outside it can never be held,” she added.

“Are you saying that a protest outside the press club cannot be held at all?” Justice Imtiaz requested the state counsel, questioning if he should specify the utmost quantity of people that may protest there. “Or you should bring a law that more than a certain number of people cannot gather outside the press club.”

The decide then adjourned the listening to until 12:30pm, ordering each side to carry a dialogue amongst themselves and apprise the courtroom of it.

When the listening to resumed, the Islamabad advocate normal additionally appeared earlier than the IHC and knowledgeable it that protests by the JI and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam—Fazl (JUI-F) have been scheduled for at the moment within the metropolis.

The counsel claimed that the “entire Islamabad was shut” attributable to JI’s sit-in, at which Justice Imtiaz requested him whether or not the get together had been granted permission for it.

“I am saying [to allow PTI protest on] Monday, then why are you not allowing it? Why can they not protest? What connection does a sit-in have with a protest?” she requested the advocate normal. To this, the counsel replied that the JI had introduced a sit-in whereas the JUI-F was to protest an order of the Supreme Court.

Here, PTI’s Shaheen highlighted that the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had “staged a sit-in without permission, yet the DIG (deputy inspector general) had chanted slogans there that their cause was the same”.

Justice Imtiaz then noticed that the areas the place Section 144 had been imposed didn’t embody F-9 Park’s space. However, the advocate normal insisted that whereas the Red Zone was highlighted, Section 144 was imposed in your entire metropolis.

The decide then requested him when the TLP’s current sit-in at Faizabad passed off, to which he replied: “We had not allowed them. They forcefully entered and sat there.”

Shaheen pressured that TLP supporters had continued their sit-in through the preliminary days of Muharram.

The decide then remarked that the matter of concern was not the imposition of Section 144 however denying a political get together the fitting to protest. “A political party has not been permitted to stage a protest but they are still coming here.”

Justice Imtiaz then requested Shaheen if a protest introduced by one other get together would pose any points to the PTI, to which he replied within the adverse, explaining that his get together’s employees would come from inside Islamabad. “How should I assume or believe that your supporters would not come from outside [the city]?” she requested.

“Kindly allocate us a location where our workers can also come and there wouldn’t be any issues either,” Shaheen requested the decide, at which she mentioned the press membership’s space was devoted to such actions.

Justice Imtiaz then requested the advocate normal what situation was posed by the date of July 29 proposed by her for the PTI protest. “If today’s circumstances continue till Monday, there cannot be any protest on that day either,” the counsel replied.

“Why would there be such circumstances? It is your government and your responsibility,” Justice Imtiaz noticed.

She urged the advocate normal to permit the PTI to protest on Monday, to which the previous mentioned: “We cannot give permission for Monday [as] we don’t know what the situation would be like then. If Jamaat-i-Islami’s protest is prolonged till Monday then we cannot allow [the PTI].”

“There would be no ifs and buts. The government should have trust in itself that it can control the situation. Do not make such statements that expose your incompetence,” Justice Imtiaz instructed the counsel.

“Do not prove yourself so helpless. You are the government. So many enemies are situated in the neighbourhood. What impression would be given if they heard this?” she mentioned.

“We will deal with enemies [but] difficulty arises when it comes to our own people,” the advocate normal responded.

“Then should I write [in the order] that the government is helpless as it cannot control the situation within three days?” Justice Imtiaz quipped, to which the counsel replied: “If you have to order so, then you may but we cannot give [PTI] the permission.”

Subsequently, the courtroom reserved its verdict on the PTI petition. The written order was issued later at the moment and mentioned: “Since holding the protest today is no longer practically possible the instant petition may be treated as a fresh application … for the purpose of holding a protest on July 29 in the F-9 Park (or any other viable venue at a time to be mutually decided by the parties) which shall be decided by way of a speaking order strictly in accordance with the law and keeping in view the observations made herein.”