Sindh asked to extend ban on rallies, sit-ins on highways, bypasses

KARACHI: The Pakistan Rangers have asked the Sindh government to extend the validation of order of ‘ban on staging protest rallies and sit-ins on highways, bypasses and main arteries of metropolitan’ throughout the province for six more months.

Earlier on February 15, 2021, the Sindh government, concerned over threats and inconvenience caused to the general public by the blocking of highways and main points of metropolitan during protests, ordered an immediate ban on staging protest rallies and sit-ins on highways and bypasses throughout the province for 60 days.

A notification was issued by the Sindh Home Department in this regard, reads that no highway and inter-district road blockade will be allowed in view of the decisions of the provincial apex committee meeting Lieutenant Colonel Zafar Ali, on behalf of the director general Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, through an official letter addressed to the secretary Sindh Home Department by quoting the incident of March 15, 2021, in which a Rangers personnel was martyred in Orangi town Karachi and some others injured, stated that a course of action was mutually agreed upon to ensure the operability of major communication arteries in Sindh.

The letter added that in this backdrop, a notification was issued on February 15, 2021 regarding the ban on staging protest rallies and sit-ins on highways, bypasses and main arteries of metropolitan for the period of sixty days, which shall be expiring on April 17, 2021. Therefore, in order to ensure ‘law and order’ and keep the highways and major roads open in case of any protest, it is suggested to extend the validation of the notification for another six months.