Islamabad: The Punjab government has beefed up security measures in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Saturday ahead of a “peaceful protest” by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
PTI founder Khan had given a call for protest in the city, reversing an earlier decision to hold a jalsa (rally) in the historic Liaquat Bagh park of the city, saying that the government would not give permission to hold the rally at the venue and instead provide a place for the gathering away from the city.
Provincial government banned public gatherings and closed all major roads leading to the city ahead of the protest.
PTI Punjab acting president Hammad Azhar said in a video message that the party would hold a “massive but peaceful political public gathering” at 2 pm, urging the PTI supporters to reach the venue on, as the party’s previous gathering in Lahore last week was forcibly cleared by the police for extending beyond the allowed time.
The Punjab provincial government responding in the traditional colonial style banned all public gatherings in four districts of the Rawalpindi administrative division.
The deputy commissioners of Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock districts requested that the Punjab Home Department ban all gatherings in the city, which imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 in the Rawalpindi region.
They banned all kinds of gatherings, sit-ins, rallies, demonstrations, jalsas, protests, and other activities like carrying or displaying weapons, as the four deputy commissioners expressed fear that miscreants “could take advantage” of the PTI protest to carry out “subversive/ anti-state activities to fulfil their nefarious designs”.
The provincial government also deployed paramilitary Rangers and police forces in Rawalpindi, which is the seat of the powerful army.
The Rangers are controlled by the federal Ministry of Interior, which deployed the troops at the request of the Punjab Home Department.
The administration also closed all major highways leading to Rawalpindi and blocked the intercity roads to foil an attempt by the local PTI workers to join the protest.
However, the PTI leaders urged workers to reach the venue by overcoming the blockades. In a video message, PTI Lahore president Sheikh Imtiaz Mahmood said workers and supporters from Punjab’s capital would reach Liaqat Bagh “to lead the movement launched for the independence of the judiciary”.
The General Headquarters of the army is located in Rawalpindi and the venue of protest is hardly a few kilometers away from the GHQ.
Liaquat Bagh, known as Company Bagh during the colonial era, has an eerie tragic importance in the politics of Pakistan as the first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated here while addressing a rally in 1951. Later, its name was changed to commemorate the fallen leader.
Decades later, former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto was also killed at the same park when she was leaving the Liaquat Bagh after addressing a rally in 2007.
After remaining quiet since the February 8 election, the PTI has become active in recent weeks and today’s protest is the third major political activity after two rallies held in Islamabad and Lahore this month.
Its jailed leader 71-year-old Khan has been encouraged by the participation of his supporters in the rallies and decided to test the waters by holding a protest this time. By doing so he also avoided the legal challenge of getting permission for a political gathering as peaceful protest is a constitutional right.
The last major protest on May 9, 2023, resulted in widespread violence and the party and its leaders were still paying its price in the form of cases and imprisonments.
