‘People have right to hold peaceful rally’

LAHORE: There is a growing speculation that the authorities are not happy with the idea of allowing a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organisation to hold a public meeting in Lahore on April 22. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday urged the Punjab government to avoid taking any steps that might be seen as interfering with people’s fundamental right to assembly. “We believe that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have as much right to enter Lahore and hold a public meeting as the people of any other province,” HRCP has said, in a letter to the Punjab chief secretary. Recalling the events of March 1973, when security forces fired on a public meeting being held by the National Awami Party in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, an HRCP spokesperson observed: “The country has already paid a heavy price for interfering with people’s right to assembly. History must not be allowed to repeat itself.