Right to protest: After hunger strike, MQM leaders to head to Lahore

KARACHI:

As the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)'s four-day hunger strike concluded outside Karachi Press Club Monday night, party leaders will now be travelling to Lahore where a case related to the party chief's media ban is likely to be decided.

Hoping that the ban on Altaf's speeches and pictures in electronic and print media will be lifted, MQM spokesperson Aminul Haque said on Monday that some MNAs and MPAs will be going to Lahore along with the party's lawyers. The hearing at the Lahore High Court is scheduled for Friday, February 26.

The party, which kicked off its 12-hour daily hunger strike on Friday, had warned that if the court decision is not in its favour, then other options, including sit-ins and strikes in Karachi, would be considered.

Speaking to the media at the last day of their token hunger strike, the party's mayoral nominee Wasim Akhtar said sentiments of thousands of people were being hurt with the ban on Altaf's addresses.  "We hope the judiciary and the authorities would respect the sentiments of the people, and take them into consideration," he said.

He said the media ban on Altaf was a violation of Article 19 of the Constitution. "We will continue to raise our voice and not rest till the ban is lifted. We will do all we can, politically and democratically, to ensure that we get our right of listening to Altaf Hussain in the media," he vowed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2016.