Creating hurdles: LHC seeks answers over Pindi blockade

Butt asked the court to stop the police from blocking roads, arresting and harassing them

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the Rawalpindi division commissioner, district coordination officer (DCO), regional police officer (RPO) and city police officer (CPO) to appear before the court on Tuesday to explain the blockage of roads by using containers.

Justice Atir Mahmood of the LHC’s Rawalpindi issued the order to officials while hearing two identical petitions against roadblocks and the lockdown of Rawalpindi on October 28.

In the first petition, Sheikh Athar Jamil,a  resident of Khyaban-e-Sir Syed, maintained that blocking Benazir Bhutto Road on October 28 created lots of problems for locals.

He claimed that the obstruction at Committee Chowk caused problems for thousands of people travelling on the road leading to Islamabad. He said the administration’s measures affected the business community and created problems for patients visiting hospitals on the day. In another petition, PTI workers Advocate Umair Tanveer Butt, a PTI activist, asked the court to stop the police from blocking roads, arresting and harassing them.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2016.