IHC to hear petition against Azadi march tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: A petition seeking to restrain the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) from staging a march and sit-in in Islamabad was filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday, ARY News reported.

A single bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, will take up the petition tomorrow.

A citizen, Hafiz Ihtesham moved the petition, citing the Ministry of Interior, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the capital administration, and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman as respondents.

He states in the petition that the JUI-F’s Azadi march could disrupt routine life of citizens residing in the federal capital.

The IHC had previously ordered the capital administration to earmark a place for holding of protests in Islamabad so that netizens won’t have to face any kind of hardship, the petition submits and pleads that the party be restrained from setting out on the march.

Earlier, the JUI-F chief had cleared that his Azadi march would only end when the government falls.

“The entire country will be our battleground,” he told reporters at a press conference.

“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.

When asked whether he has been able to garner the support of other opposition parties, he said that he “hope(s) to see them” in the march. He added that since all opposition parties agreed that last year’s general elections were “fake” and that reelection should be held, they should all be “on the same page and same stage”.