ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad district administration on Friday issued a ‘final warning’ to religious protesters camped at Faizabad interchange, telling them to disperse by midnight or face ‘strict action’.
“You have been repeatedly intimated about the illegality of your protest/sit-in. The act of illegal protest and blocking of major public roads, has caused gross inconvenience to the citizens of twin cities and has become a matter of public nuisance,” reads a notification issued by the district magistrate addressing Tehreek-e-Labaik Yah Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLYRAP) leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi.
“You are once again strictly directed to immediately call-off your sit-in and clear the roads at Faizabad intersection by 12am Friday night,” the communiqué said, adding, “Non-compliance of order will lead to contempt of court and [the] competent authority will be compelled to initiate strict legal action against the illegal protest to fulfil the requirements of law and writ of the state.”
The notification further said that any public event required prior coordination and permission for necessary security arrangements and relaxation of Section 144 of the CrPC. “The Parade Ground located near the Faizabad Interchange has been allocated for protests,” the notification stated. “If an operation is conducted to clear the interchange, onus will be on the leadership and the participants of the protest,” added the notification.
Earlier in the day, the Islamabad High Court issued a contempt notice to Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal over the federal government’s apparent failure to end the protest, directing the district administration to clear Faizabad sit-in protest within three days.
Justice Shaukat Siddiqui while hearing the case expressed annoyance at the government’s inaction, saying flouting court order was tantamount to disrespecting it. He asked under what authority did the interior minister stop action against the sit-in despite court order, in response to chief commissioner’s statement that government stopped the city administration from taking action so that the dialogue with protestors is not interrupted.
“It is unfathomable how an interior minister or even a prime minister can flout court orders,” the judge said, adding that the action was an attempt to degrade the court. When the district attorney general requested Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui to withdraw the show-cause notice, the judge responded, “Are you a servant of the interior minister or the federation?”
The interior secretary said that if the administration will opt for force there are high chances of bloodshed. He said that the government and administration are taking measures by taking into consideration the interests of the state.
“The court is not ordering to fire straight at the protesters,” the judge replied. The court has also summoned intelligence agencies officials also in the next hearing scheduled for November 27. The court directed the interior secretary to submit Raja Zafarul Haq’s report before it in the next hearing. The judge directed that if anyone has been named in the committee’s report as being responsible for the change in the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat declaration, their name should be put on the exit control list.
He assured the respondents that the name in reports will not be made public. He added that it is the responsibility of the institutions to dilute the perception that agencies were behind the sit-in.
About 2,000 protesters belonging to a little known religious party continue to block the crucial intersection for over two weeks.
Daily life in the capital has been disrupted by protesters belonging to religious parties – including the Tehreek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat, Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) and the Sunni Tehreek Pakistan (ST) – who are calling for the sacking of Law Minister Zahid Hamid and strict action against those behind the amendment to the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat oath in the Elections Act 2017.
The amendment had earlier been deemed a ‘clerical error’ and has already been rectified.
The government on Monday scrambled to secure the support of religious leaders and clerics from across the political spectrum in a bid to negotiate a peaceful end to the sit-in. However, a meeting between representatives of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah and government ministers held at the Punjab House was unable to make any breakthrough, as the protesters had refused to budge from their demand for the law minister’s resignation.
Published in Daily Times, November 25th 2017.