PHC directs KP govt not to block roads for Azadi March

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government not to block any road for the Azadi March of the JamiatUlema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and other opposition parties.

The PHC ordered for keeping roads up to Attock open for the marchers as any hurdle in this regard will be considered as illegal.

The court observed that the media should give equal airtime to both the government and the opposition to express their points of view.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ahmad Ali was hearing the case about placing containers to block the way of the Azadi March.

The bench directed that the additional advocate general should submit in writing that government would not create any hurdle in the way of the Azadi March. The bench also directed the participants of the march to remain peaceful.

The court expressed dismay over absence of representation from the office of the attorney general during hearing of the case.

The additional advocate general told the court that the government would deal with the protesters as per the law.

He added the government would take action if the protesters tried to create law and order issue.

Obaidullah Azhar, the convener for the Jamiat Lawyers Forum, had filed the petition in the PHC.

He had requested the court to stop the government from placing containers and creating hurdles in the way of the Azadi March.

The petition stated that nobody should be deprived of the fundamental right of movement. PHC observed that no one could be stopped from staging peaceful protests.

It said that the same rights were exercised by Prime Minister Imran Khan against the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by holding a sit-in for 126 days and the then government did not create any hurdle for the protesters.

The petition pointed out that the government had placed containers on the roadsides on the Motorway, the Grand Trunk Road and other roads much before the Azadi March, thereby giving a message that roads leading to Islamabad will be blocked.

It may be added that the government and the opposition later inked an agreement after which the former decided not to place the containers on the roads and to let the protesters reach Islamabad.

No container has been placed on any road so far to block the way of the protesters to the federal capital.

Led by the chief of JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other opposition leaders, a large number of the participants of the march are already on their way from Karachi and other cities of Sindh and Punjab to Islamabad.

More protestors are scheduled to reach the federal capital by October 31 to participate in the major event being held there.