A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the upcoming sit-in and protests in Islamabad announced by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a private TV channel reported on Friday.
The petition, submitted by Advocate Nadeem Sarwar, stated that Fazl has announced to lodge sit-in in the federal capital to sabotage the process of reforms in religious seminaries. It argued that an elected government cannot be sent home ahead of completion of its five-year tenure as per constitution of Pakistan. It noted that armed groups have been created by the JUI-F in the name of security of the protest. The petitioner pleaded the court to order the authorities concerned to stop Fazl from organising the sit-in.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had disposed of petitions filed against JUI-F’s upcoming anti-government ‘Azadi March’, declaring that peaceful protest was the legal right of every citizen or political party. “The State only in extraordinary and exceptional circumstances can restrain a person from exercising his or her right to protest on the ground of national security,” the court had observed in its order, and ordered the local administration to take a decision on Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s request for holding the march in the capital in accordance with the law.
