LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday stayed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from holding a rally at Iqbal Park (Minar-e-Pakistan) this Sunday and asked the party to allow citizens to go about their daily lives.
The party had planned to hold a “historic” public rally at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on March 19 and it was to be led by PTI chairman Imran Khan despite “security threats”.
PTI senior vice-president Fawad Chaudhry had moved the high court a day earlier demanding a halt to the police operation in the Zaman Park area. The police have taken action to arrest Khan in the Toshakhana case following a court order.
After the initial hearing, the high court ordered the police to call off the operation by 10 am today, helping calm the situation that had turned into a battleground at the former prime minister’s residence.
But as Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh resumed the hearing today, he pointed out that neither the LHC nor the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had stopped human rights activists from executing arrest warrants for the ousted prime minister.
PTI workers fought through party supporters and clashed with human rights activists for nearly 24 hours as they tried to arrest Khan, who was not elected prime minister last April.
During the process, many people, mostly police officers, were injured when human rights defenders fired tear gas and party supporters threw Molotov cocktails.
The legal case against Khan began after he was ousted in a parliamentary vote early last year. Since then, he has held protests across the country demanding early elections, during which he was shot and wounded.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details become available. Refresh the story for the latest updates.
