No Islamabad lockdown: Court orders Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf

Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Monday ordered Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) to hold its protest at the Democracy Park outside the main city instead of locking down the federal capital. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) said since the Democracy Park was designated by the government for all political and other rallies and events there was no reason to cripple life in the main city.

Hearing petitions filed against the PTI sit-in, High Court Judge Shaukat Siddiqui asked PTI chief to assure that his sit-in will be at a specific place without disturbing public peace and routine activity in the city. He ordered police to provide security to the PTI chief when he comes to appear before the court. Meanwhile, the PTI expressed no-confidence over the High Court’s decision. PTI counsel Babar Awan vowed to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.

“They had assured that no containers will be placed, but ‘Sharifistan’ has turned all the country into ‘containeristan’. We will knock Supreme Court’s door against this decision,” he said. PTI chairman Imran Khan, a former national cricket hero, vowed to bring a million people into Islamabad on November 2 to paralyse the government and force Sharif either to resign or allow an inquiry into the “Panama Papers” revelations about his family’s offshore wealth. Meanwhile, his ex-wife Reham has claimed that she had asked him for a wedding anniversary gift last year but he divorced her instead.