Daily Times

Ten years after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) sit-in of 2014, petitions challenging the protest are set to be heard by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

A three-member full bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, will take up the case on October 10. The court’s registrar office has issued the cause list for the proceedings.

The original petitions were filed by prominent lawyer A.K. Dogar, who has since passed away. The petitions named multiple political parties as respondents, including PTI, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), Jamaat-e-Islami, and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The case revolves around allegations that PTI founder Imran Khan and PAT chief Tahir-ul-Qadri violated court orders by leading a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad in 2014, which culminated in a prolonged sit-in. Petitioners argued that this defied a previous judicial ruling, constituting contempt of court, and requested legal action against both leaders.

Though the petitions have been dormant for some time, efforts to expedite the hearing were made through an application filed by A.K. Dogar before his death, calling for an early review of the contempt charges. The case, which also implicates Qadri and Khan for disregarding court directives during the Islamabad sit-in, had not been scheduled for the past three months.

The hearing will now take place after nearly a decade, as the court moves forward to address the legal challenges surrounding one of the most high-profile protests in Pakistan’s recent political history.