Punjab govt all set to deal with public gatherings

LAHORE: Keeping in view the second wave of the novel coronavirus, the Punjab law ministry, in its recommendations, asked the government not to allow the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to hold any public meeting in the province, ARY News reported.

Strict legal action should be taken against PDM if it puts people’s lives in danger by holding a public gathering in the province, the ministry recommended.

PDM’s activist should be arrested under Section 16 of the MPO and its leadership should be kept under house arrest if it tries to hold a public meeting in the province.

Earlier on November 17, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had rejected a ban imposed by the federal government on public gatherings in the country amid rising COVID-19 cases.

“We reject a ban on public gatherings in the guise of COVID-19 pandemic and they will be held as per schedule,” the JUI-F chief had said adding that the incumbent rulers were used to rigging and their tactics are aimed at pressurizing the opposition leaders.

He had said that it was not a government formed from the public mandate and therefore they would not hold any sort of negotiations with them. “We also reject the results of the Gilgit Baltistan elections,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said.