ICT administration, govt open parleys. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: A contingent of protesters camped on the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday as the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration officials engaged in parleys, trying to convince the protesters to agitate in the parade ground rather than in the red zone.
The move came even as the police kept the capital’s Red Zone sealed on Wednesday.
The rally, organised by the Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) and Sunni Tehreek, had left Lahore on Tuesday and reached the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday evening when this story was filed.
The rally consists of around 600 people in around 30 vehicles and they want to lay siege to the parliament unless their demands are met.
The capital’s authorities, however, expect that hundreds of protesters may join the rally from within Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The rally is being led by TLYR Chairman Asif Jalali, a firebrand scholar, who had recently been barred from entering the capital by the by the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration.
They want the government to identify and punish those behind a recent change in the wording of a declaration of Khatam-e-Nabuwat, or finality of the Prophethood, in election laws.
The change was immediately withdrawn and the declaration restored in its original form when the objections were raised. However, protesting clerics and their followers claim that it was a conspiracy to weaken the oath of Khatam-e-Nabuwat.
The police and the ICT administration had sealed off the capital’s Red Zone with shipping containers on Tuesday evening while reinforcements were sought from the Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Frontier Constabulary.
A senior ICTA officer told The Express Tribune that they were trying to convince the rally’s organisers to stage their protest in the Parade Ground but the rally organisers remain unconvinced so far.
He added that the protesters would not be allowed to enter the Red Zone in any case. Meanwhile, the government also opened parleys with the rally’s organisers on Wednesday evening. A Sunni Tehreek leader in Islamabad said they were meeting with a three-member government committee comprising federal ministers Khawaja Saad Rafique, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, and Talal Chaudhry.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2017.
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